[ntp:questions] Re: Finding nearest NTP server

Martin Drake martin.drake at egs.lu
Fri Jan 16 07:43:50 UTC 2004


Isaac Grover wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 08:52:28 +0100, Martin Drake <martin.drake at egs.lu> wrote:
> 
>>A "hidden" ntp server is obviously not intended for public access, so 
>>why bother?
> 
> 
> Topologically and geographically, wouldn't it make more sense to access an NTP
> server within four hops and in the same state as opposed to twelve hops and
> three states away?  Hence the search for hidden NTP servers...  =)

Technically speaking, you're right of course.

The point I was trying to make is that it's possible to get perfectly 
fine results by sticking to the time servers advertised as available for 
public access without resorting to any "covert" methods.

I am in Luxembourg and use the following servers:

ntpdc> pe
      remote           local      st poll reach  delay   offset    disp
=======================================================================
=LOCAL(1)        127.0.0.1       10   64  377 0.00000  0.000000 0.00096
*ntp1.ptb.de     192.168.111.4    1 1024  377 0.04803  0.007996 0.01485
=dns.univ-lyon1. 192.168.111.4    2 1024  377 0.07968  0.000081 0.01483
=ntp1.belbone.be 192.168.111.4    2 1024  377 0.04507 -0.030375 0.01485

Not one of them is closer, geographically speaking, than 200 km from my 
location. The results are nevertheless perfectly adequate for my needs.

Martin Drake
EGS Luxembourg




More information about the questions mailing list