[ntp:questions] Re: Client Clock Updates

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Thu Nov 17 20:59:44 UTC 2005


Steve Pope wrote:

>How do you control how often a client updates it local clock from the
>ntp server?
>
>  
>
ntpd does this automagically.  It works best if you just leave it 
alone.   If you feel that you MUST tinker with it, you can specify 
MINPOLL and MAXPOLL in the server statement.  MINPOLL sets the minimum 
poll interval.  The default is 6 (shorthand for 2^6 or 64 seconds).  
MAXPOLL sets the maximum interval, the default is 10 (2^10 or 1024 
seconds.  ntpd starts by using the value of MINPOLL.   As the local 
clock is pulled into synch, ntpd increases the interval to MAXPOLL.   
ntpd will select the optimum polling interval if you allow it to.

The only circumstances I can think of in which you might need to tamper 
with the defaults would be using a dial-up modem to get the time.  In 
this case you might want to extend the polling interval to eight or 
twelve hours or even more.  The accuracy of your clock will suffer but 
what you save in phone bills may compensate for that.




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