[ntp:questions] help with setting up NTP on windows with a USB GPS

David J Taylor david-taylor at blueyonder.not-this-bit.nor-this-part.co.uk.invalid
Wed Dec 2 07:29:14 UTC 2009


> David,
>
> I looked at timeGetTime() and I found it only gives out relative time
> (since Windows was started). Is it possible to query NTP server to get
> an accurate starting time?
>
> jack

As Dave Hart says, you would need to do a network transfer to get the time 
from NTP - that's a bit of a pain when it's running locally.  A pity that 
Dave's new DLL couldn't include a very simple get current time call!  Hint 
Dave!  Call: GetNTPTime - returns a 64-bit value.  However, a network 
query should take less than a millisecond on the local PC, so you could 
then use the timeGetTime function.  The ambiguity is around 49 days, so it 
shouldn't be an issue.  The other much more accurate way /may/ be to use 
QueryPerformanceCounter - a 64 bit counter running at either a few MHz or 
even at CPU-speed.  Yes, it would need calibrating, and you may also have 
to deal with CPUs where the speed changes (also an issue for NTP), and 
there may also be an ambiguity issue.

If you go the SNTP route, the packet you need is easy to construct, and 
it's on page 7 here:

  http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2030.txt

It's what my Delphi SNTP monitor program uses, and has about a dozen 
fields to complete.

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/net.htm#NTPmonitor

73,
David 




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