[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I am looking to implement an 'internal' NTP server (preferably freeware) > on a Win 2003 server so that I can broadcast NTP across Windows, Unix and > S400 servers. > Has anyone been successful in doing this and can recommend a utility to me > please? > Access to NTP externally is not permitted. > Thank you in advance.
The problem is not so much the software; that's readily available and free, but the time source. The typical computer does not keep time very well; most systems gain or lose several seconds a day. Using such a clock as a time source means that, while all your systems are more or less in synchronization none of them have the correct time. In a really bad case, all the systems could gain or lose twenty to thirty minutes a month. Normally, an NTP client will use a server that gets time directly or indirectly, from a hardware reference clock. A hardware reference clock gets accurate time from a source traceable to NIST by some form of electronic communication. Typical reference clocks are GPS receivers, WWV receivers (NIST HF broadcast station), WWVB receivers (NIST VLF broadcast station) or equivalent services operated the the national standards laboratories of other countries. Your computer can even make a telephone call to NIST to find out what time it is. You appear to be operating under restrictions that will make it difficult or impossible to keep correct time. If everybody having the same incorrect time, maybe wildly incorrect time, satisfies you then go to it. If you are allowed to install and use a GPS timing receiver ($85 US and up)you can use it to synchronize a local server to the correct time and then provide that time to your network. For more money (a lot more, I'm afraid) you can get an NTP server in a box with either a GPS receiver or a receiver for the reference signal from a CDMA cellular telephone base station. You plug in the power cable, you connect it to your internal network, configure it with an IP address and subnet mask and you're up and running. Either approach will allow you to keep your network synchronized within five milliseconds, or better, of the correct time. The software is available, in source form, from http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Main/SoftwareDownloads A pre-built Windows version is also available: http://www.meinberg.de/english/sw/ntp.htm Linux and most Unix systems ship with some version of the NTP daemon. This can be anywhere between a few months to a decade out of date; Sun Solaris, for example, ships with a version almost ten years old! It still works but that's about all you can say for it. _______________________________________________ questions mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ntp.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/questions
