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Network Date and Time

Davy123
Community Member

One my devices gets its date and time from the network but has not changed over from BST to GMT.

Does anyone know how Google Nest gets it time? And how can I see what time it has set?

 

12 REPLIES 12

PatrickP_Viking
Gold Product Expert
Gold Product Expert

Hey @Davy123 .

Google gets their time from their Public NTP servers. Depending on the ISP and/or modem settings, it could be using their NTP. Using a VPN or connecting to a far away gateway, like some services use, could also affect the accuracy.

You were not specific about what device didn't change over the time from BST to GMT. If it is from a single device only, it is likely a setting at the device level itself and may be connected to the location setting (if applicable). You might even need to change the time setting on the device also from automatic and manually set it. If all else doesn't remedy it, then doing a factory reset and starting over with setup will be the best option.

Considering that BST moved to GMT some time ago, I'd suspect it is just a device setting. Let me know if this helps or if you need further assistance.

Hey folks,

We appreciate your help here, @PatrickP_Viking.
@Davy123, I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Mel

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi Davy123,

Checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread.

Best,
Abi

Patrick, yes is probably a device problem (Roberts 83i internet radio). I have checked all the settings on the device and they are fine. But it worries me that the Google network may have the wrong time and so I am asking if anyone knows how to check the network time

According to their Public NTP forum, there are not any issues with the service. I'd recommend to reset the device with the time issues and set it back up again. For whatever reason, it is not recognizing the time change, possibly due to not automatically switching when the change occurred.

https://groups.google.com/g/public-ntp-discuss

Patrick, i dont know how devices handle equinox time changes when getting a time from the network. Does the network time change at the equinox? I suspect it doesn't. If the Google network time does not reflect the season but stays with GMT, then the device would have to adjust the displayed time. If I could interrogate the network time then I could understand better.

Here's the link to the Google Public NTP guides. You might have to reach out to their Support to get the query for what you are looking for.

https://developers.google.com/time/guides

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey Davy123,

Chiming in to ensure everything is good here. Have you had the chance to check the link above? If yes, how is it?

Best,
Abi

Davy123
Community Member

Patrick/Abigail,

Following your suggestions I have determined the following:

  • the computing world uses UTC Universal Time which is similar to GMT = London winter time.
  • there are many time servers available online which will give the UTC time.
  • UTC does not adjust for seasons or longitude; that job is left to the local device which obtains the UTC time from a time server
  • Windows 10 uses the time server server:time.windows.com
  • Google recommend the public NTP time server time.google.com

However, networks need all the devices, Microsoft, Google, Linux, etc to synchronise their time. They do this using the NTP protocol which is basically hierarchical in a network. So, in a typical network, you would expect Google Nest devices to synchronise to the local ISP router, and devices attached to the WiFi network to synchronise their times with the Google Nest device providing the network.

So the network time is set by the time server which the ISP uses; not by Google.

So, in conclusion, it confirms what you all told me and I should have listened to: the local device controls seasonal time adjustments.

Many thanks.

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi Davy123,

I'm happy to hear your questions are already answered. Let us know if you have any other inquiries we can help you with, we'll be here to help you out.

Regards,
Abi

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey Davy123,


We’d like to check in again in case you have any further questions or concerns. Feel free to reply to this thread and we’ll help you out.


Best,

Abi

Jhonleanmel
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi everyone,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, I would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let me know.

Thanks,
Mel