Re: Setting clock in Linux

My take on clock synchronization after some years of experience:

- crontab solutions like netdate are quite adequate for most purposes;
  because most PC hardware clocks are cheap you need to run it at least
  4x per day if you want the time adjustment to be within its 0.5s slew
  range; it is too bad netdate does not have an option to change that
- ntp is superadequate, if you want to bother setting it up

I wanted to mention that ntp synchronization has for some years been a
bonus feature in high-end routers. Thus you can often find a
time source by trying ntp queries against servers or routers up the
traceroute chain within your network provider. Shortly after getting
a cable modem, I found machines within Shaw running ntp and used them
in my ntp.conf:

server 24.64.3.139
server 24.64.3.140

A time source within your provider has the advantages of being
low-latency and available whenever your connection is up.

The above are stratum 3 servers, which are adequate for almost any purpose.
Stratum 2 or 1 servers can be left to those who have serious reasons for
needing submillisecond accuracy, or to those having pretensions of such,
a.k.a. the "geek chic" :).
-
Saskatoon Linux Group Mailing List.
-
To unsubscribe, send mail to
'linux-request@slg.org' with
'unsubscribe' in the body.
Received on Sun Sep 5 11:06:58 1999