# The importance of time
All devices have an internal clock (routers, switches, your PC, etc).
In Cisco IOS, you can view the time with the `show clock` command.
```
R1# show clock
*00:16:00.87 UTC Sat Dec 26 2020
```
{% hint style="info" %}
The default time zone is UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
{% endhint %}
If you use the `show clock detail` command, you can see the time source.
```
R1# show clock detail
*00:19:49.411 UTC Sat Dec 2 2020
Time source is hardware calendar
```
{% hint style="info" %}
\* = time is not considered authoritative
`Time source is hardware calendar` - The hardware calendar is the default time source.
{% endhint %}
The internal hardware clock of a device will drift over time, so it is not the ideal time source.
From a CCNA perspective, **the most important reason to have accurate time on a device is to have accurate logs for troubleshooting**.
**Syslog**, the protocol used to keep device logs, will be covered later.
## Logs
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