[ntp:questions] WiFi & NTP.

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Thu Aug 30 13:19:33 UTC 2007


Dennis Hilberg Jr wrote:
> Jason Rabel wrote:
> 
>> Those numbers seem much more reasonable.
>>
>> The root dispersion is the maximum error between the local clock and the
>> root of the NTP chain. Your time on each system is accurate to within the
>> range given above.
> 
> 
> My problem is that I misunderstood you when you said 'precision'.  I was 
> simply referring to offsets grabbed from ntpq.  Perhaps Guy was too.
>

The NTP world uses the word "precision" to designate the value of the 
low order bit kept by the system clock; e.g. the smallest possible 
difference between the two consecutive time stamps.  It's generally 
specified as a negative power of two.

My Sun Solaris (SPARC) boxes have a precision of -21 but an accuracy of 
plus/minus 5 milliseconds when synchronized from the internet.





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