[time-nuts] Re: Telstra outage: Possible GPS-related 1024 week rollover.

[Björn]

Hi,

A major Swediah organisation had an old timeserver - that ran for decades without issues.

One morning it had decided to jump forward in time. Many systems were connected. A HR system decided all employees now were to old and retired them in the spot. The access card system did due diligens and invalidated all acesscards. 

Thus the timeserver were safe behind several layers of physical security.

It took some time to find Cards that were not tied to a specific person.

Why fix something that is not broken?

Kind regards

     Björn 

Skickat från min iPhone

> 14 juli 2026 kl. 15:49 skrev Bob kb8tq via time-nuts <time-nuts at lists.febo.com>:
> 
> Hi
> 
> The real answer here is that the box being used was *way* past the end of its useful life. It
> was not designed to run this long. There is a *lot* of hardware out there that falls into this
> category, not just timing gear. Ignore that and you *will* get problems ….  A cell site still running
> 2G hardware from 2005 would have many issues today. They *do* get upgraded.
> 
> Bob
> 
>> On Jul 13, 2026, at 2:33 PM, Steven Sommars via time-nuts <time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>> 
>> More technical users can add N x 1024 weeks when needed.  I'd bet that many
>> time-nuts only need PPS,
>> and that GPS WNRO is not interesting.
>> 
>> Why not create replaceable "expiration date" stickers for the front of GPS
>> time servers?
>> Units supporting SNMP could also send an alarm as that date approaches.
>> 
>> I have older GPS units that have already rolled-over, and have no idea when
>> my current units with join them.
>> That's why I asked about inexpensive GPS simulators.
>> 
>> Steve
>> 
>> 
>>> On Mon, Jul 13, 2026 at 8:48 AM Bob kb8tq via time-nuts <
>>> time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi
>>> 
>>> On a many devices, the “roll over” changes with each firmware update. They
>>> set things to roll over
>>> 1024 weeks from the start of writing that update. Typically this is not
>>> documented very well.
>>> 
>>> More modern gear ( = built in the last decade) often has the issue
>>> addressed in one of several ways.
>>> The idea is that they will not roll over if used as the manufacturer
>>> expects.
>>> 
>>> Bob
>>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at lists.febo.com
>> To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave at lists.febo.com
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at lists.febo.com
> To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-leave at lists.febo.com