NETGEAR and the University of Wisconsin — Madison have identified an issue with how some NETGEAR routers utilize the network time protocol (NTP) public time service provided by the University.

Specific NETGEAR home routers rely on public time services provided by the internet community. If a specific public access NTP server is unavailable, these routers will not be able to synchronize their time with the public NTP server. As a result, features such as logging, email alerts, and time-based URL filtering may experience a degradation in time-keeping. Overall router functionality is unaffected. Network traffic to the specified time server, however increases as the router tries to obtain the time.

“As soon as the issue was identified, NETGEAR worked closely with the University of Wisconsin - Madison to understand the issue and minimize any impact,” said Annie Stunden, CIO at the University of Wisconsin. “NETGEAR has taken a leadership role in working with the University to ensure a reliable networking experience for its customers and to establish best practices for interfacing with our public access servers.”

While this should not have an impact on users, NETGEAR customers with the following router models are nevertheless encouraged to upgrade their firmware:

• RP614 Firmware for RP614
• DG814 Firmware for DG814
• MR814 Firmware for MR814
• HR314 Firmware for HR314

ID: N101176.asp