Sunday, May 8, 2005

Cisco tip: Configure the time on a router

Set the router’s time with this privileged EXEC command:

router#clock set [hh :mm:ss] [day of the month] [month] [year]

(Some routers use the calendar command instead of the clock command.)

You can also configure your timezone and daylight savings time using the global configuration mode command clock.

In order to use the timezone command, you’ll need to know your offset from Greenwich Mean Time. Visit http://www.greenwichmeantime.com/ for particulars. To configure your router to synchronize its time with with an Internet time server running the Network Time Protocol (NTP), use this global configuration mode command:

router(config)#ntp server [ip address host name]

Obviously, if you choose to configure NTP with a hostname, you must also configure your router with some means of resolving hostnames to IP addresses such as a name server or a host file. Some low end routers don’t support the NTP command. If your router doesn’t accept it, try the same syntax, but substitute SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol) for NTP. You can find a listing of public NTP servers by searching online for “NTP servers”.

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