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

[Richard B. Gilbert]

David J Taylor wrote:
> "unruh" <unruh at wormhole.physics.ubc.ca> wrote in message 
> news:slrnhhilur.scb.unruh at wormhole.physics.ubc.ca...
> []
>> Please, do not use a Windows box as your main server. get a cheap ( your
>> local flea market should have one for $50) computer, install linux or
>> freebsd, purely for running ntp on it, and use it as your server.
> 
> Bill,
> 
> The requirement is to provide time within a millisecond or so for a 
> program running on a Windows PC.  It makes much more sense to have that 
> same PC work as its own NTP server using a GPS/PPS source, purely from a 
> performance point of view.
> 
> Providing an extra PC with a network connection, would result in poorer 
> performance for the task in hand, together with all the overheads of 
> learning a different OS and the time that would take, plus all the 
> energy costs of running that extra PC!
> 
> Yes, you can get better absolute performance from a FreeBSD box, but in 
> this case that performance is not needed, could not be communicated to 
> the application which needs the time, and would provide a quite 
> unnecessary overhead.  Linux/FreeBSD provides a /worse/ solution in this 
> case.
> 
> I tire of the anti-Windows mantra which sometimes appears in this group, 
> particularly when it occurs with no consideration for the task in hand.  
> A good solution will not be over-engineered nor require two PCs where 
> one would do.
> 
> David

Well, the anti-Windows mantra is a hangover from ten or twelve years 
ago!  Ten or twelve years ago, Windows earned that hangover.  It's much 
better these days.  I haven't installed Vista yet but W/2K and W/XP were 
good solid systems.  W/2K had a good many vulnerabilities to Viri and 
worms but if you kept up-to-date with your Windows patches it was OK.

I've been running W/XP for several years now and it runs like a watch!