Log entries with a dot before timestamp

[ph0enix]

Some entries in the firewall log have a dot in front of the timestamp. What do the dots mean?

011768: Jun 26 22:24:33.614 NewYork: %FW-6-DROP_PKT: Dropping tcp pkt 204.69.199.39:80 => 172.16.56.57:53421

011804: Jun 26 22:27:55.642 NewYork: %FW-6-DROP_PKT: Dropping tcp pkt 216.109.126.70:80 => 172.16.56.57:53429

011807: Jun 26 22:28:32.716 NewYork: %FW-6-DROP_PKT: Dropping tcp pkt 204.69.199.39:80 => 172.16.56.57:53430

011815: Jun 26 22:32:37.280 NewYork: %FW-6-DROP_PKT: Dropping tcp pkt 204.69.199.39:80 => 172.16.56.57:53434

011827: .Jun 26 22:34:18.945 NewYork: %FW-6-DROP_PKT: Dropping tcp pkt 204.69.199.39:80 => 172.16.56.57:53439

011838: .Jun 26 22:34:49.224 NewYork: %FW-6-DROP_PKT: Dropping tcp pkt 207.46.19.60:80 => 172.16.56.57:53442

011845: .Jun 26 22:36:30.356 NewYork: %FW-6-DROP_PKT: Dropping tcp pkt 64.233.161.99:80 => 172.16.56.3:4430

[gfullage]

The dot means the router has gone out of sync with its configured NTP server and therefore the date/time may be incorrect.

If it only happened for a short period then it may have been a network problem or problem on the NTP server where this router was unable to sync to it. If it is still happening do a "sho ntp assoc detail" and make sure it is in sync with the NTP server (sane/valid). If it isn't then you need to check your NTP server config, or perhaps there's a firewall in between that is blocking the NTP packets.

[ph0enix]

Thanks for the info. I have the router configured to sync with time.nist.gov, time.apple.com and a local NTP server. time.nist.gov is the preffered source but I see that periodically the router isn't finding any of the 2 external servers and logging messages like:

%NTP-4-PEERUNREACH: Peer 192.43.244.18 is unreachable

%NTP-4-PEERUNREACH: Peer 17.254.0.26 is unreachable

I wonder why.