Re: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch

[Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org>]

We just had two TM1000 TimeMachine brand GPS NTP servers lose clock sync at the same time, in two different cities (LA 
and Santa Barbara). The  outage lasted about five minutes, during which the NTP servers were responding, but with time 
that was 1900 seconds out of sync. The devices showed satellite lock on 8 birds (not all the same ones). I've never 
seen this behavior before with years of NTP clock experience.

It could be that these inexpensive NTP servers aren't very selective about bogus inputs, as I would have expected them 
to lose synch in the event of a GPS signal failure. Instead they produced garbage. Our PRTG NTP monitor logged the 
problem this way:

      
Sensor SNTP (SNTP) ***
Device      10.2.10.90-TimeMachine NTP server (10.2.10.90)  
New Status at 5/10/2024 12:49:52 PM (Pacific Standard Time):
Down
Last Message:
The target server did not return a valid time. To resolve this issue, use a packet analyzing tool and do a trace of the 
NTP packets to check if all fields are correctly populated. (code: PE085)

________________________________
From: NANOG <nanog-bounces+mel=beckman.org () nanog org> on behalf of John Curran <jcurran () arin net>
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2024 10:54 AM
To: NANOG <nanog () nanog org>
Subject: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center issued a Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch


<https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/swpc-issues-its-first-g4-watch-2005>
SWPC Issues Its First G4 Watch Since 2005 | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction 
Center<https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/swpc-issues-its-first-g4-watch-2005>
swpc.noaa.gov<https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/swpc-issues-its-first-g4-watch-2005>
[favicon.ico]<https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/swpc-issues-its-first-g4-watch-2005>

"Multiple CMEs erupted associated with flare activity from Region 3664 on 07-09 May. These CMEs are expected to merge 
with potential arrival expected by early May 11 on the UTC day.”

(Low but distinct possibility of effects to radio and transmission systems)

FYI,
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers