[ale] possibility of running an NTP server

[Ron Frazier]

On 01/11/2012 09:41 AM, Brian Mathis wrote:
>
> Network time servers can work many different ways, either by syncing
> with other time servers or by getting their time directly from a
> device like a GPS receiver.  The network protocol is very robust and
> has been designed and working for years to be extremely accurate, even
> given the "best effort" nature of IP networks.  You don't need to be
> worrying about how many milliseconds are added per hop or whatever,
> that's what the NTP protocol takes care of.
>
> Running a server at home or in a company for internal use is not
> problem and you won't need anything special for that.  Running your
> own public server, however, is extremely unlikely to be allowed, at
> least as part of the official pool, and definitely not from a home
> Internet connection.  You generally need to be a university or some
> other large organization to be able to participate in the pool.
>
> One of the main reasons for this is trust.  Time keeping is extremely
> critical for security, and anyone who runs a server has the potential
> ability to skew the clients' clocks and thus enable reuse of expired
> certificates, for example.
>
>
> ❧ Brian Mathis
>
>
>    

Hi Brian,

You may very well be right about the difficulty of running a public 
server.  I understand the concerns you raised.  However, the web pages 
at http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/join.html and 
http://www.pool.ntp.org/join/configuration.html don't mention a lot of 
criteria.  Admittedly, the criteria mentioned may knock me out.  The 
static IP address is definitely something I don't have, but could have a 
static host name through the DynDNS service, etc.  My internet 
connection is essentially permanent as long as I keep paying for it.  
The second link I gave above recommends setting up 5 servers, so I'm 
probably NOT willing to do that.  As far as someone skewing the time of 
the clients, I think NTPD will automatically throw out time numbers that 
don't agree with the other servers it's looking at.

Sincerely,

Ron


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Ron Frazier

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