{"id":953,"date":"2009-12-14T09:43:20","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T09:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.galsys.co.uk\/news\/?p=953"},"modified":"2025-05-08T13:54:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T13:54:56","slug":"network-time-protocol-for-when-time-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.galsys.co.uk\/news\/network-time-protocol-for-when-time-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Network Time Protocol For When Time Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a certain irony that the computer that sits on your desktop and may have cost as much as month\u2019s salary will have a clock onboard that is less accurate than a cheap wristwatch bought at a petrol or gas station.<\/p>\n

The problem is not that computers are in particularly made with cheap timing components but that any serious timekeeping on a PC can be achieved without expensive or advanced oscillators.<\/p>\n

The onboard timing oscillators on most PCs are in fact just a back up to keep the computer clock synchronised when the PC is off or when network timing information is unavailable.<\/p>\n

Despite these inadequate onboard clocks, timing on a network of PC\u2019s can be achieved to within millisecond accuracy and a network that is synchronised to the global timescale UTC<\/a> (Coordinated Universal Time) shouldn’t drift at all.<\/p>\n

The reason this high level of accuracy and synchronicity can be achieved without expensive oscillators is that computers can use Network Timing Protocol (NTP<\/a>) to find and maintain the exact time.<\/p>\n

NTP is an algorithm that distributes a single source of time; this can be generated by the onboard clock of a PC – although this would see every machine on the network drift as the clock itself drifts – A far better solution is to use NTP to distribute a stable, accurate source of time, and most preferably for networks that conduct business across the internet, a source of UTC.<\/p>\n

The simplest method of receiving UTC – which is kept true by a constellation of atomic clocks around the globe – is to use a dedicated NTP time server<\/a>. NTP servers use either GPS satellite signals (Global Positioning System) or long wave radio broadcasts (usually transmitted by national physics laboratories like NPL or NIST).<\/p>\n

Once received the NTP server<\/a> distributes the timing source across the network and constantly checks each machine for drift (In essence the networked machine contacts the server as a client and the information is exchanged via TCP\/IP.<\/p>\n

This makes the onboard clocks of the computers themselves obsolete, although when the machines are initially booted up, or if there has been a delay in contacting the NTP server<\/a> (if it is down or there is a temporary fault), the onboard clock is used to maintain time until full synchronisation is again achievable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a certain irony that the computer that sits on your desktop and may have cost as much as month\u2019s salary will have a clock onboard that is less accurate than a cheap wristwatch bought at a petrol or gas station. The problem is not that computers are in particularly made with cheap timing…<\/p>\n

Continue reading <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,62,74,12,13],"tags":[199,25,206,36],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advanced-ntp","category-chronology","category-network-security","category-ntp-applications","category-time-server","category-time-synchronisation","tag-advanced-ntp","tag-network-time-server","tag-time-synchronisation","tag-windows-time-server"],"yoast_head":"\nNetwork Time Protocol For When Time Matters - Galleon Systems<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.galsys.co.uk\/news\/network-time-protocol-for-when-time-matters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Network Time Protocol For When Time Matters - Galleon Systems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a certain irony that the computer that sits on your desktop and may have cost as much as month\u2019s salary will have a clock onboard that is less accurate than a cheap wristwatch bought at a petrol or gas station. 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