[ntp:questions] ntpd, boot time, and hot plugging

Brad Knowles brad at stop.mail-abuse.org
Thu Feb 3 00:52:52 UTC 2005


At 11:55 PM +0000 2005-02-02, Per Hedeland wrote:

>  No, *that's* not true. Ntpdate sends four queries to each of the servers
>  given on the commandline, and applies "some" filtering to the results in
>  order to choose the "best" correction to the local clock.

	But how many people actually use ntpdate to check more than one 
upstream?  I know plenty of OS configurations where you are only 
allowed to provide a single host name or IP address.

	It's not a matter of what ntpdate is capable of, if used in the 
correct way.  It's a matter of the way in which ntpdate is typically 
used.


	With ntpd, we've got a configuration file, and we can help ensure 
that people are less likely to be able to use it in a stupid way.

>>	With ntpd, you can at least require some sort of authentication
>>key before you believe the server.
>
>  This diatribe is so far removed from reality that it doesn't really
>  deserve comment - let it be enough to note that ntpdate does support
>  "some sort of authentication", in case anyone wants to use it.

	Again, it's not a matter of what ntpdate can potentially do, it's 
a matter of what you can require that the program *will* do, based on 
the configuration file.


	Combine the configuration file with the improved algorithms in 
ntpd, and there's no comparison.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.



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