[ntp:questions] Re: NTP packets

Paul Croome Paul.Croome at softwareag.com
Thu Oct 30 10:55:05 UTC 2003


karlobrien2 at yahoo.com (moorefieldman) wrote in message news:<c7b3dce2.0310291437.2459d01f at posting.google.com>...
> I have a question about how an NTP server is queried. How do you get
> the time off a server? Does it use UDP? If I want to update the time
> on my computer using an NTP server how would I connect to the NTP
> server?

To query an NTP server, use an NTP client.

The NTP software is both server and client in one. You'll need to
download & compile NTP, set up a ntp.conf file, and then you're ready to run.

Yes, NTP uses UDP.

To connect to an NTP server, you typically just specify its name (or IP
address) in the ntp.conf file. It's good practice to specify more than
one server.

There are exceptions, for example in many countries you can connect to an NTP
server via a dialup telephone modem connexion.

-----

All of the above assumes that you want to synchronize your system clock to
UTC. If all you want to do is to set the clock once a day, when you boot
your computer, and then leave it to its own devices, you could use ntpdate.

Paul



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