what happened to the apple time server?

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Level 1

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what happened to the apple time server?

Does anyone know what has happened to "time.apple.com"? I only knoticed because the clock on my laptop was horibly wrong. I have subsequently had to change the time server my computer looks at to set the time. All atempts to traceroute to time.apple.com have failed, or issue a 'ntpq -p time.apple.com'. The server at least pings back...

Does anyone else have this issue?

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Mar 4, 2007 12:37 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Mar 4, 2007 12:54 PM in response to monkey1s2

Works for me...

10 50 51 51 129.250.3.152 p64-4-0-0.r21.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
11 51 55 52 129.250.2.96 ae-0.r20.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
12 51 51 51 129.250.2.29 xe-1-4.r02.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
13 48 48 48 129.250.12.82 xe-0.internap.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
14 205 182 47 66.151.144.68 border1.pc2-0-bbnet2.sje.pnap.net
15 Timed out Timed out Timed out -
16 Timed out Timed out Timed out -
17 Timed out Timed out Timed out -
18 49 49 49 17.254.0.26 time0.apple.com
Trace complete

Answer records
time.apple.com 1 A 17.254.0.31 600s
time.apple.com 1 A 17.254.0.26 600s
time.apple.com 1 A 17.254.0.27 600s
time.apple.com 1 A 17.254.0.28 600s

Retrieving DNS records for time.apple.com...

DNS servers
nserver.apple.com [17.254.0.50]
nserver.asia.apple.com [17.82.254.3]
nserver.euro.apple.com [17.72.133.64]
nserver2.apple.com [17.254.0.59]
nserver3.apple.com [17.112.144.50]
nserver4.apple.com [17.112.144.59]

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Answer 2

monkey1s2 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2007 3:14 PM in response to BDAqua

strange... My connection reaches the 64 hop limit and never returns back. I have all the same DNS entries you show, for time.apple.com, but all time requests fail for me: as well as all traceroutes... and yet I can still ping the servers. I don't get it. (If I change to another time server, ntp works fine.)

10 cr1.sje007.inappnet-23.cr1.lax009.internap.net (66.79.146.146) 34.251 ms 41.309 ms 48.708 ms
11 66.79.148.130 (66.79.148.130) 34.536 ms 33.122 ms 61.786 ms
12 border1.pc1-0-bbnet1.sje.pnap.net (66.151.144.4) 47.420 ms 32.261 ms 33.885 ms
13 apple-12.border1.sje.pnap.net (66.151.157.186) 67.924 ms 34.996 ms 38.101 ms
14 * * *
...
63 * * *
64 * * *

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Mar 4, 2007 3:33 PM in response to monkey1s2

Just for a test, try these fpr DNS Server in Network>...

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

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Answer 4

monkey1s2 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2007 3:53 PM in response to BDAqua

I have used both as DNS servers... and nothing has changed... the traceroute goes the same way and while the servers don't respond to ntp they do to ping. It is almost like port 123 is blocked somewhere between my provider and 17.254.0.26 (time.apple.com)

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Mar 4, 2007 4:11 PM in response to monkey1s2

Yeah, if I was to hazard a guess... it the infighting/splintering of the Internet that is the cause, but not certain.

Try a Proxy way of doing that Traceroute, like...
http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=express&host=time.apple.com

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Answer 6

monkey1s2 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 4, 2007 4:19 PM in response to BDAqua

the proxy traceroute worked in 18 hops like your requests... I did notice that the trace route you both go through is:
border1.pc2-0-bbnet2.sje.pnap.net
in my cases I go through
border1.pc1-0-bbnet1.sje.pnap.net
which then goes to
apple-12.border1.sje.pnap.net
and the rest times out.

The funny thing is a traceroute to
border1.pc2-0-bbnet2.sje.pnap.net
works...

so here is the question... How do I control the path of packets to go through pc2?

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Mar 4, 2007 8:59 PM in response to monkey1s2

One little know quirk in the Time Server system, is that say you had more than one Computer addressing the vTime Server, and they happened to request Time within 4 seconds of each other, it could be tagged as a Denial of Service Attack, and hence be negated for a while.

I must ask a question at this point... Why must you use Apple's Time Servers if other Time Servers work?

For instance, I just turned OFF automatic update, set my Month, Year, Day, and Time off by one on each, used "time.nist.gov", set automatic update back ON, and within about 30 seconds everthing was back to correct!?

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Answer 8

monkey1s2 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 5, 2007 8:09 PM in response to BDAqua

yes, you are absolutly correct... I can use another time server with no problem. I was just curious, if not perplexed, that apple's time server didn't just work. It almost sounds as though it is out of there control (somewhere in the ether of the network)... but it did cause me some confusion, like maybe it was apple's own time server that was just down.

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Mar 5, 2007 10:24 PM in response to monkey1s2

Thanks for your reply! 🙂

Sometimes, and it seems more often to me,,, you just have to do what works... not what should work! LOL

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