[ntp:questions] Re: Mac OS X + ntpd?

[Steve Kostecke]

On 2005-02-02, Brad Knowles <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org> wrote:
> At 4:32 PM -0500 2005-02-02, David Magda wrote:
>
>>>  No, the Soekris doesn't have a fan.  But then, because it's running
>>>  on a CompactFlash device, it doesn't make a good place to run an
>>
>>  Sokris machines can use hard drives as well. Check the web site for
>>  details.
>
> 	The 48xx series has some serious problems being used as an NTP 
> server -- ask Steve.

Actually the NET4801 does work quite well with FreeBSD 5.3 Release as
long you you compile the correct kernel. The problems I experienced in
making it work were primarily in finding the necessary documentation.

The CPU in the NET4801 has an unreliable TSC and does not make a good
clock in conjunction with a Linux kernel; I tried 2.4.x and 2.6.10
kernels.

My soekris (which operates as a Multicast+Autokey server for my LAN) is
synchronized to an assortment of remote time servers through a cable
modem. I'm plotting the offset and jitter with cricket and for today (as
of the time of this article):

Offset (for the day): Cur: 0.30 msecs Avg: -0.01 msecs Max: 3.93 msecs
Jitter (for the day): Cur: 3.49 msecs Avg: 2.61 msecs Max: 11.74 msecs

(my cricket URL available upon request)

Current stats for this server are available via finger (the server is
behind my firewall) --> 'finger ntp0 at kostecke.net'

-- 
Steve Kostecke <kostecke at ntp.isc.org>
NTP Public Services Project - http://ntp.isc.org/