{"id":894,"date":"2010-08-31T15:31:59","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T15:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.galsys.co.uk\/news\/?p=894"},"modified":"2018-05-08T15:16:56","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T15:16:56","slug":"ntp-servers-which-signal-is-best-radio-or-gps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.galsys.co.uk\/news\/ntp-servers-which-signal-is-best-radio-or-gps\/","title":{"rendered":"NTP Servers Which Signal is Best Radio or GPS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NTP time servers<\/a> (Network Time Protocol) are an essential aspect of any computer or technology network. So many applications require accurate timing information that failing to synchronize a network adequately and precisely can lead to all sorts of errors and problems \u2013 especially when communicating with other networks.<\/p>\n

Accuracy, when it comes to time synchronization, means only one thing \u2013 atomic clocks. No other method of keeping time is as accurate or reliable as an atomic clock. In comparison to an electronic clock, such as a digital watch, which will lose up to a second a day \u2013 an atomic clock will remain accurate to a second over 100,000 years.<\/p>\n

Atomic clocks are not something that can be housed in an average server room though; atomic clocks are very expensive, fragile and require full time technicians to control so are usually only found in large scale physics laboratories such as the ones run by NIST<\/a> (National Institute of Standards and Time – USA) and NPL<\/a> (National Physical Laboratory – UK).<\/p>\n

Getting a source of accurate time from an atomic clock is relatively easy. For a secure and reliable source of atomic clock time there are only two options (the internet can neither be described as secure nor reliable as a source of time):<\/p>\n