[ntp:questions] NTP settings for machine with irregular, short connections to the Net

Rikishi 42 fsck_spam at telenet.be
Sat Sep 8 20:39:19 UTC 2007


On 2007-09-08, Jason Rabel <jason at extremeoverclocking.com> wrote:

>>The laptop needs to run ntpd while it serves time to the other LAN 
>>clients. For ntpd to convince itself that it is capable of serving time 
>>while not connected to the ISP, it needs permission to "synchronise to" 
>>its own local clock.
>
> Well, that's not entirely true. If he is running Windows (2K & Up) you can
> use a registry hack to enable a local SNTP server. So for simplicity's sake
> he doesn't actually need to install NTP (unless it is *nix).

The maptop and the isolated PC's are all running Linux. SUSE 10.0, to be
exact.


>>Given that the OP won't want to change the configuration of his laptop 
>>each time he moves between the ISP and the LAN, he in fact won't be able 
>>to use ntpdate to synchronise the laptop to the ISP (because ntpd will 
>>be running), and instead will have to use ntpd itself for the purpose of 
>>synchronising the laptop to the ISP.
>
> I don't know how good a notebook really is for a time sync device. Mine is
> horrible, I don't know if it is speed-step or what doing it, but in a single
> day I could be off by quite a few seconds. I always go in & out of suspend
> and hibernate so I don't run NTP on it, but I do have the Windows SNTP
> client update several times a day (registry change) to keep things sane.

Well precision is not that big a deal. 
On the laptop, the idea was to sync rapidly, and stop trying to adjust after
that, when it's disconnected.
For the other machines, rapid sync with the laptop is ideal, since that
laptop won't be switched on all the time. None of the machines is, for that
matter. So none of them can be allways available server.

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