Dave Evans offers the following royalty-free article for you to publish online or in print. Feel free to use this article in your newsletter, website, ezine, blog, or forum. ----------- PUBLICATION GUIDELINES - You have permission to publish this article for free providing the "About the Author" box is included in its entirety. - Do not post/reprint this article in any site or publication that contains hate, violence, porn, warez, or supports illegal activity. - Do not use this article in violation of the US CAN-SPAM Act. If sent by email, this article must be delivered to opt-in subscribers only. - If you publish this article in a format that supports linking, please ensure that all URLs and email addresses are active links. - Please send a copy of the publication, or an email indicating the URL to [email protected] - Article Marketer (www.ArticleMarketer.com) has distributed this article on behalf of the author. Article Marketer does not own this article, please respect the author's copyright and publication guidelines. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this article. ----------- Article Title: Build Your Own NTP Server Author: Dave Evans Category: Networks, Information Technology, Computers Word Count: 547 Keywords: ntp server, time server, gps time server, gps ntp server, time synchronisation, gps clock, gps time, Author's Email Address: [email protected] Article Source: http://www.articlemarketer.com ------------------ ARTICLE START ------------------
Network Time Protocol (NTP), is a standard Internet protocol used to disseminate precise time across a computer network. The application is freely available under a public license and downloadable from the Internet. By utilising the Network Time Protocol daemon and a hardware reference clock, you can easily build your own highly precise stratum-one time server. This article describes how to configure and build your very own server by utilising low-cost GPS or radio hardware time references. It will provide a highly accurate network time reference that can be used to synchronize all your computers and other network infrastructure to the same precise time. NTP is available as source code for compilation and configuration on a Linux or UNIX machine. The source code is freely downloadable from the NTP website. In fact most standard Linux distributions, such as Ubntu and Debian pre-install and configure the daemon for you. Other distributions may include it as an RPM. In order to build a stratum one server, you need an accurate external timing reference. A number of timing references are available, many utilise GPS or national time and frequency radio sources such as WWVB, DCF77 and MSF. GPS is currently the system of choice, it is great as a timing reference, since it is available worldwide, is accurate and the equipment required for receiving time and positioning information is very low-cost. Most GPS receivers have a RS232 serial port that can be easily interfaced to a PC. The receiver generally provides continuous time and positioning information in a standard format known as NMEA. An NTP server can utilise the timing information provided by a NMEA receiver as an accurate timing reference. Additionally, some receivers also provide a highly accurate pulse output that can be utilised by a NTP server as a highly precise epoch. Any timing pulse generated by a GPS receiver may need to be converted into a usable RS232 signal level. This can be achieved by feeding the pulse into a RS232 driver chip. Many radio based reference clocks are available that utilise national time and frequency standards. WWVB is a US radio time and frequency transmission, DCF77 is transmitted from Germany, MSF is available throughout the UK. The advantage of a radio signal as a reference clock for your NTP server is that you can usually pick up a good signal indoors, close to the NTP server. In contrast, GPS requires an antenna with a good view of the sky. Once you have your NTP server external reference clock set-up and installed, you need to configure the clock in the NTP configuration file 'ntp.conf'. This usually involves finding and specifying the reference clock code for your timing reference. Once configured, your NTP server will act as an accurate source of time for your network time clients. To summarise, it's very easy to set up and configure a NTP sever by utilising low-cost components, which are readily available. Most modern operating systems can utilise NTP to synchronize. Linux and Unix machines can utilise the freely downloadable NTP daemon. Modern Microsoft operating systems such as XP and Windows Server have pre-installed SNTP clients that can point to the IP address or DNS name of a NTP server for synchronisation. Additionally, many network devices such as routers and switches can also utilise your NTP server for synchronization. David Evans is a technical author in the field on computer network time synchronisation systems. David has written many white papers on NTP and network timing solutions. Please visit our web site for more information on NTP Servers: http://www.timetools.co.uk/ ------------------ ARTICLE END ------------------ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
