[ntp:questions] Basic Question - How often does Client poll Server?

Brad Knowles brad at stop.mail-abuse.org
Mon Mar 21 18:03:05 UTC 2005


At 7:05 AM -0800 2005-03-21, zev wrote:

>  My question is regarding the amount of traffic the NTP protocol will
>  generate on the network.  How often does an NTP Client poll the NTP
>  Server?  Unlike other IP protocols there doesnt seem to be a fixed
>  timer interval.

	It depends on the implementation.  In theory, the NTP client 
should start querying at a short interval initially (on the order of 
every sixteen seconds or so), but as it gathers more data, it should 
be able to increase that interval and then maintain a longer interval 
as it continues to run (on the order of 1024 seconds).

	However, some poor implementations can do really, really bad 
things, like querying every second -- or worse.  Even with good 
implementations, it may be possible to mis-configure them so that 
they behave poorly.


	So, it all depends on your implementation, and your configuration.

-- 
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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