WAC104 Access Point thinks its 1970

net-david wrote:

The WAC-104 time configuration webpage only allows you to select a time zone and select daylight savings time.

Correct, as specified a decade ago on this very basic AP, and documented in the fine user manual.

net-david wrote:

I can see the WAC-104 requesting DNS for time-a.netgear.com and time-b.netgear.com, assuming they are the hard coded NTP servers.

Doing a DNS query is not sufficient. Does the UDP packet sent to the NTP server does really leave your LAN - and subsequentially, does the UDP NTP response ever come back? I guess no, it does not.

Check the complete IP config on the AP, including the subnet mask, the default gateway address.

net-david wrote:

I also confirmed ntp connectivity from my  PC using "w32tm /stripchart /computer:time-a.netgear.com /dataonly /samples:5".

Ok, looks like there is nothing in the data path to the NTP server(s) blocking the traffic. As not much changed on the NTP protocol the last decade, it's very likely the NTP traffic does neither reach the NTP server IP address(es) - and therefore, no useful data is returned ever. 

Review the WAC104 IP stack config, or ensure it's set as a DHCP client getting the required config from your router, typically serving the DHCP service for the LAN, and handling the traffic to and from the Internet to your WAC 104.

And no, before you ask, such an issue would not affect the access point traffic from your wireless devices... 

Happy New Year!

-Kurt.