[ale] semi [OT] NTP questions - and NTP Windows - was: possibility of running an NTP server

[mike at trausch.us]

On 01/13/2012 04:54 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> NTP is polling the NIST service every 4 minutes, and, as you can see 
> from the red graph, my clock offset is all over the place, varying from 
> -5 ms to +110 ms.  I also notice that the frequency is drifting up from 
> -13 to -9.  Can someone explain to me in a few words what the frequency 
> means?  Does this graph mean that the system is trimming my clock?

It is more than sufficient to set your clock once a day.  Much more
frequently than that and it is considered impolite.

Even the most horrible of PC clocks I have encountered don't drift more
than 10 seconds per day.  The average, IME, is 0.5 to 4 seconds per day.
 If you need to get more accurate than that, then purchase or build a
WWVB receiver that can feed your computer the current time directly from
the radio signal.  Then you can have your computer constantly up-to-date
when the signal is coming in, and you shouldn't drift horribly when it
isn't.

	--- Mike

-- 
A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
                                   --- Carveth Read, “Logic”

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