By default, Tekron clocks do not provide any means to bypass the password to gain access to the clock. This means that in the case of a forgotten administrator password or in the case where a clock is made unreachable on the network because of incorrect settings, the only way to recover the unit is to send it back to Tekron for reprogramming at the customer’s expense.
However, recently released firmware has added the ability to recover from these scenarios. This feature is referred to as the “Factory Reset Procedure”, or “FRP”. This feature is disabled by default and must be enabled by the administrator before it can be used.
The FRP tool can only be used on the Admin Ethernet port on the clock. If you are connected to any Ethernet port other than the Admin port, the tool will not work. Similarly to discovering the clock, the clock needs to be on the same network as your PC when using the FRP tool.
The effect of Arming the FRP tool on the outputs will also depend on the output suppression settings configured on the clock. If the output is configured to never suppress the output, then when the FRP tool is Armed on the clock, all timing outputs (NTP, PTP, IRIG-B) will not be affected.
Physical access to the clock is also required as a power cycle is required to complete the procedure.
Once this procedure has been complete the clock will be reset to the factory default configuration, meaning that this feature will need to be re-enabled.
This feature is currently supported by the following firmware versions:
| Clock Model | Supported Firmware Versions |
| TCG 01/02-G | Firmware F2.28r, 3.21r or later |
| NTS 02/03-E | Firmware 3.20r or later |
| NTS 02/03-G | Firmware 3.20r or later |
| TTM 01-G | Firmware 3.21r2 or later |
| TSC100/NTS100 | Firmware 3.21r2 or later |
To see how to arm the FRP tool check out this guide here