It uses SM's time if no time server is provided. GMT offset is specific in the settings file
Or, just point to a SNTP server in the settings file. You need to put your time offset in there anyway and the phone will keep it's own time.

Otherwise, it'll use whatever time SM thinks it is - dunno if it defaults to SMs timezone, but probably does.

If I may inquire, if the endpoint is remote and behind an SBC should the phone be able to pickup changes to the 46xx.settings file upon a reboot?

Remote worker reference design is that there is a HTTP(S) relay on the SBC so the answer can be yes if you want to push new config out

You guys might not do that for security and provision the phone one time only on LAN and mail it out where it can't get a settings file again.

I have the relay part setup -- B2 https -- A2 -- internal file server http. not seeing any traffic happening for this. Does that have to be configured anywhere in the 46xx file?

No. It's literally just like port forwarding on a home router.

You should be able to https://publicFQDN/46xxsettings.txt and get it in your browser if it's setup right.
File server don't care if the client is from internal or the internet.

I manually put in our public IP of the file server in the https server field of the craft menu and the phone now looks to be successfully hitting it. The change I made to the 46xx file updated, but it didn't pull the updated firmware. It stood there at the GET of one of the files and eventually timed out I guess. It's traveling a far distance so not sure if it's because of that or something else.

well, presuming a 96x1SIP phone, the phone should always ask for 96x1Supgrade.txt first, that should tell the phone what firmware file it should be running - and if it's running it already, it skips to 46xxsettings.txt

Because it's exposed to the internet, maybe security guys are doing some filtering. Like, the firewall on ingress sniffs the traffic and you told him you only need /46xxsettings.txt to get your phones up, so maybe he has an explicit rule to let no other URLs through.

If that's not the case, then you should see file server logs. /var/log/httpd/access_log.log on a plain old linux box, or wherever your logging happens

Looks like from the FW that there was about a 3.9mb file uploaded and timed out by the client, which is showing as A2 IP address.

If at first you fail, try try again?