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    Time is not syncing

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • beremonavabiB
      beremonavabi @johnpoz
      last edited by beremonavabi

      @johnpoz said in Time is not syncing:

      @beremonavabi said in Time is not syncing:

      NTP will ONLY run on my SG-4860 if WAN is selected to listen

      I have sg4860, I run both vpn servers on multiple instances 443 tcp, 1194 udp and also a vpn client connection to a vps out on the net running openvpn-as..

      But I am NOT pulling routes from that connection and only policy route out to that vpn if need a client to take that path.. And I am NOT listening on the wan port and have zero issues with ntp talking to outbound ntp per previous screen shots.

      So you clearly have something messed up in your configuration causing this problem there is zero reason that ntp should have to listen on wan to talk to ntp servers on the internet.

      I'm also not pulling routes. I'm mostly clueless about this, but my routes look fine, to me:

      IPv4 Routes
      Destination	Gateway	Flags	Use	Mtu	Netif	Expire
      0.0.0.0/1	10.4.0.1	UGS	16952	1500	ovpnc1	
      default		[my WAN IP]	UGS	34	1500	igb1	
      10.4.0.0/16	10.4.0.1	UGS	0	1500	ovpnc1	
      10.4.0.1	link#12	UH	371622	1500	ovpnc1	
      10.4.0.14	link#12	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      10.8.0.0/16	10.8.0.1	UGS	0	1500	ovpnc2	
      10.8.0.1	link#13	UH	371535	1500	ovpnc2	
      10.8.0.27	link#13	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      [my WAN net]/24	link#2	U	371654	1500	igb1	
      [my WAN IP]	link#2	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      127.0.0.1	link#7	UH	6821	16384	lo0	
      128.0.0.0/1	10.4.0.1	UGS	84534	1500	ovpnc1	
      192.168.1.0/24	link#1	U	0	1500	igb0	
      192.168.1.1	link#1	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      192.168.10.0/24	link#3	U	0	1500	igb2	
      192.168.10.1	link#3	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      192.168.20.0/24	link#4	U	10946342	1500	igb3	
      192.168.20.1	link#4	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      192.168.30.0/24	link#5	U	464495	1500	igb4	
      192.168.30.1	link#5	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      192.168.40.0/24	link#6	U	0	1500	igb5	
      192.168.40.1	link#6	UHS	0	16384	lo0	
      192.168.200.0/24	192.168.200.2	UGS	333989	1500	ovpns3	
      192.168.200.1	link#11	UHS	743340	16384	lo0	
      192.168.200.2	link#11	UH	33730	1500	ovpns3	
      [VPN address]/32	[my WAN IP]	UGS	456678	1500	igb1	
      [VPN address]/32	[my WAN IP]	UGS	5024988	1500	igb1	
      
      

      EDIT: Since only a handful of us have had this issue, I agree that I must have something messed up in my configuration. But I have no idea what it is. And, since nothing in my logs leaps out at me as being a problem, I don't even know where to look. I've pretty much given up on this and am just living with NTP on WAN.

      SG-4860, pfSense 2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        @beremonavabi said in Time is not syncing:

        0.0.0.0/1 10.4.0.1 UGS 16952 1500 ovpnc1

        No your pulling routes if you have something like that..

        You blocked routes from your client config? See how have only my wan default route and only routes for my client connection are the network its connected too.0_1529004862429_notpull.png

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

        beremonavabiB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • beremonavabiB
          beremonavabi @johnpoz
          last edited by

          @johnpoz I've got the same "Don't pull routes" box checked in my VPN clients. The 0.0.0.0/1 (and the 128.0.0.0/1) routes are added with the "redirect-gateway def1" Custom Option I'm using. That redirects all my traffic through the VPN (whereas you are policy routing specific clients), but leaves the default route untouched so the firewall, itself, can get through the WAN:

          https://forum.netgate.com/topic/115760/firewall-traffic-needs-redirect-gateway-def1-to-route-thru-vpn

          That being said, I had also been wondering if that could be causing the issue. But, since the OP of this thread isn't using a VPN client on pfSense, he shouldn't have those routes set. So, if that were the problem, he shouldn't be seeing it. Also, from my other thread I referenced earlier, I'm pretty sure that's what I tried to work around with a specific Outgoing NAT rule to allow UDP 123 traffic to go through the WAN:

          0_1529006304514_20180610 -- pfSense NTP Fix Question.PNG

          That didn't work. So, obviously it didn't do what I thought it might.

          Still, that's all on the routing side. I still don't understand why having NTP listen on the WAN would allow this to work. AFAIK, the NTP client on pfSense sends out traffic asking for the time and gets a response. There shouldn't be anything legitimate arriving unsolicited from the internet. So, the incoming NTP traffic ought to get right through the firewall since it's in response to a legitimate request.

          Do you have any blocking rules on your WAN to block incoming private/bogon networks? Or, do you just let the default "block everything" behavior in pfSense handle that? Could the NTP traffic from my setup be somehow avoiding NAT, going out with my private address on it, and getting blocked on the way back in by my rules?

          SG-4860, pfSense 2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by johnpoz

            @beremonavabi said in Time is not syncing:

            Custom Option I’m using.

            Same problem then... Why would you be doing that.. Turn that off - does your ntp start working now... Its quite possible your vpn is just blocking ntp. Sniff on your vpn interface do you see the ntp queries go out?

            Argghhh I wish people would stop jumping into threads that have NOTHING to do with their problem or their setup is completely different..

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

            beremonavabiB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • beremonavabiB
              beremonavabi @johnpoz
              last edited by

              @johnpoz said in Time is not syncing:

              Argghhh I wish people would stop jumping into threads that have NOTHING to do with their problem or their setup is completely different..

              What are you talking about? I "jumped" into this thread and gave the OP the solution he needed to get NTP working (select the WAN in Services > NTP). I then noted he was using VPN, as was I. That's a point in common. I was trying to explore that as possibly relating to this issue. In what way did I jump in with something not related to the problem?

              But, I guess, just forget it.

              SG-4860, pfSense 2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)

              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • johnpozJ
                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @beremonavabi
                last edited by

                @beremonavabi said in Time is not syncing:

                (select the WAN in Services > NTP)

                That is NOT a solution... That is a work around for some other misconfig..

                Did you do what I suggested and remove the 0.0.0.0 route you have and see if works then not picking wan.

                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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                • brunovicB
                  brunovic
                  last edited by

                  So to follow up on my issue which may be different from beremonavabi's. When I have the NTP interfaces set to internal interfaces I am unable to sync with NTP servers however when I ping I can get to them just fine. But when I selected WAN interface for NTP I am able to sync with the NTP servers. What could be causing that?

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                  • brunovicB
                    brunovic
                    last edited by

                    Also under NTP what does selecting those interfaces even mean? How does it "listen" on those interfaces for NTP? Does it just mean that it sources the interface IPs? That part right there really confuses me.

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                    • K
                      kpa
                      last edited by kpa

                      NTP is 100% UDP and with UDP your application (in this case the NTP service) is responsible for both sending out the queries and listening for replies. This is completely unlike compared to TCP where TCP does all the heavy lifting for you with setting up the connection and dealing with the return traffic. The consquence of this is that any application using a UDP based protocol has to listen on a socket to do anything, even if it's just a client querying other servers.

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                      • brunovicB
                        brunovic @kpa
                        last edited by

                        This post is deleted!
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                        • brunovicB
                          brunovic @kpa
                          last edited by brunovic

                          @kpa said in Time is not syncing:

                          NTP is 100% UDP and with UDP your application (in this case the NTP service) is responsible for both sending out the queries and listening for replies. This is completely unlike compared to TCP where TCP does all the heavy lifting for you with setting up the connection and dealing with the return traffic. The consquence of this is that any application using a UDP based protocol has to listen on a socket to do anything, even if it's just a client querying other servers.

                          Okay. That doesn't answer my question though. My questions are:

                          1. Why does it sync on WAN but not on any of the internal interfaces
                          2. What does it mean by it is "listening" on those interfaces. I need to know from a routing perspective. I've done a ping sourcing those interfaces and pings from LAN, GUEST, etc come back with 0% packet loss. So if what you are telling me is true IF NTP is listening on though interfaces then UDP should not have a problem IF ICMP is fine.
                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • K
                            kpa
                            last edited by kpa

                            1. Post your outbound NAT configuration, if WAN is deselected from the interfaces the NTP service might be trying to bind to another interface but the outgoing connections fail because of faulty outbound NAT settings.

                            2. It means literally what it says, listening for incoming data packets on the said interface. UDP is connectionless and stateless, an application that uses the UDP socket sends out a data packet (or multiples depending on the protocol) and then stops in listening mode to wait for the replies to the sent packets. Once those are received the data is processed and the loop starts again by either sending out more data or staying in listening mode for more incoming packets.

                            brunovicB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • brunovicB
                              brunovic @brunovic
                              last edited by

                              @brunovic said in Time is not syncing:

                              @johnpoz so it looks like my outbound NAT is manually configured. How will this prevent NTP from syncing?

                              0_1528993260522_Capture08.JPG

                              This is what you are looking for right?

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                              • brunovicB
                                brunovic @kpa
                                last edited by

                                @kpa if that is the case then why would it be listening to NTP packets on the LAN and not the WAN? That server is not on my internal network.

                                NogBadTheBadN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • NogBadTheBadN
                                  NogBadTheBad @brunovic
                                  last edited by

                                  @brunovic

                                  Your router can provide ntp to clients on your lan, that’s why it listens on the lan interface.

                                  Have a look at the dhcp settings for your lan subnet.

                                  Andy

                                  1 x Netgate SG-4860 - 3 x Linksys LGS308P - 1 x Aruba InstantOn AP22

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                                  • johnpozJ
                                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                    last edited by

                                    Why do you have it in manual mode if all you doing is what automatic would be doing?

                                    Where is your nat for vpn connections, your tunnel network would need to be natted? Try changing it to automatic.. You sure and the hell should not have to listen on wan to query a time server.

                                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                    SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                                    brunovicB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • brunovicB
                                      brunovic @johnpoz
                                      last edited by

                                      @johnpoz said in Time is not syncing:

                                      Why do you have it in manual mode if all you doing is what automatic would be doing?

                                      Where is your nat for vpn connections, your tunnel network would need to be natted? Try changing it to automatic.. You sure and the hell should not have to listen on wan to query a time server.

                                      There is a reason to it. I can't remember but something was not working correctly in automatic mode.

                                      jimpJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • johnpozJ
                                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                                        last edited by

                                        Like what? Put it back.. And delete all your manual rules. You can always put it back to manual if this whatever it is comes back.. But if there is something that is not working in automatic mode that should be brought up so we can fix it, so other users using automatic don't have whatever this is issue is you think you were having.

                                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                                        brunovicB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • jimpJ
                                          jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate @brunovic
                                          last edited by

                                          @brunovic said in Time is not syncing:

                                          There is a reason to it. I can't remember but something was not working correctly in automatic mode.

                                          This makes me think you have some other misconfiguration as the root cause here. If your WAN is static, make sure you have a gateway set on Interfaces > WAN. And also check Interfaces > LAN and make sure you do not have a gateway set there. Same for your other local interface(s) like Guest.

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                                          brunovicB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • brunovicB
                                            brunovic @jimp
                                            last edited by

                                            @jimp said in Time is not syncing:

                                            @brunovic said in Time is not syncing:

                                            There is a reason to it. I can't remember but something was not working correctly in automatic mode.

                                            This makes me think you have some other misconfiguration as the root cause here. If your WAN is static, make sure you have a gateway set on Interfaces > WAN. And also check Interfaces > LAN and make sure you do not have a gateway set there. Same for your other local interface(s) like Guest.

                                            If you see my route print screen above the only quad zeros out are on the WAN interface.

                                            jimpJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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