NTP, Firewall, Ports, and Actiontec

[SteveSBE]

I thought I'd pass this on in case anyone else has the same problem.

 

My NTP stopped working on my ISY99i. I also was unable to update my internet time on my Win7 PC.

 

I found this by noticing these messages, which came every 20 seconds on my ISY99i:

Time User Code Message

Sun 2011/05/22 03:51:09 PM System -60006 n/a

 

I tried some of the DNS solutions in other posts. Nothing worked including using an IP address for the NTP server in the ISY99i.

 

Looking back in logs, I determined it probably started when I turned on high firewall security and did selective port forwarding on the firewall for my ActionTec DSL Router model GT724R.

 

I did some searching and it looked like all I had to do was customize my GT724R firewall to open port 123. I did so on the customize screen for the different firewall security levels. That didn't work for both the ISY99i and the PC.

 

I thought I could just do some port forwarding however the GT724R would not let me create a rule. The message indicated a "Error found on page".

 

I got around this by adding port 123 for TCP & UDP to an existing port forwarding rule. Go figure... Once I assigned that rule to the ISY99i, NTP worked just fine for the ISY99i. Ditto for the PC.

 

Hopefully this will help someone with a similar problem. Maybe there was a simpler solution...others can comment on that.

 

Thanks,

 

Steve