[vox-tech] rdate servers and apt-get for redhat

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Eric Nelson (en77@attbi.com):

> Uh oh.  I didn't know it was anything but some government service.  Do
> you know any ntp servers which are less restrictive? 

Basically, any NTP host whose sysadmin replies to your inquiry, saying
"Sure, go ahead and sync to us".  Or who has a public notice, e.g. on a
Web page saying "Access policy:  Open to the public" or such.

> I don't want to have bad dreams about stratum 1 servers.  They sound a
> little scary.

The problem inherent in them is that there are very few of them, and
they're very popular:  A stratum 1 server, by definition, is one
directly connected to an atomic clock, and those just don't grow on
trees.  Stratum 2 means a machine that syncs to a stratum 1 server
(which is so close to perfection that it really doesn't matter), and so
on.  Even stratum 4 or stratum 5 would probably be some ridiculously
tiny fraction of a second different from perfect time-keeping.

But because the stratum 1 and stratum 2 host lists are very easy to
find, sync'ing to them strikes casual users as a good idea.  I mean,
they're stable, easy to find, and very, very accurate:  Why not?  At
least, it seems that way until (as reportedly sometimes happens) they
notice you and freeze out your IPs.  It's sort of a "tragedy of the
commons" type of problem.


Anyhow, looking on the US, California portion of
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/clock2.html (all stratum 2), I see:

US CA ntp.ucsd.edu (132.239.254.49)
Location: UCSD Academic Computing Services/Network Operations, San Diego, CA
Access Policy: open access, please send a message to notify.
Contact: timekeeper@ucsd.edu

US CA ntp1.mainecoon.com (63.192.96.2)
Location: Quincy, California
Access Policy: Open Access, please drop us a note so we can add you to
our mailing list.
Contact:time@mainecoon.com or Chris Kennedy (chris@mainecoon.com)

US CA ntp1.sf-bay.org (207.126.97.57)
Location: San Jose, CA
Access Policy: open access, please send a message to notify
Contact: Scott Hazen Mueller (clockmaster@sf-bay.org)

US CA ntp2.sf-bay.org (204.74.68.55)
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Access Policy: open access, please send a message to notify
Contact: Scott Hazen Mueller (clockmaster@sf-bay.org)

US CA reloj.kjsl.com (204.87.183.6)
Location: Salinas, CA, USA
Access policy: open access, please drop me a note if you use the server
so I can keep you on the notify list.
Contact: <timekeeper@kjsl.com>>

US CA time.berkeley.netdot.net (216.27.190.202)
Location: Berkeley, CA
Access Policy: open access, please send a message to notify
Contact: Caleb Haley (chaley@netdot.net)

US CA time.five-ten-sg.com (205.147.40.34)
Location: Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA
Access Policy: open access, email for firewall access first
Contact: carl@five-ten-sg.com


Personally, I sync to a friend's stratum 4 server, by arrangement with
him.  If I wanted maximally accurate sync, I'd include several such
machines in my list.  But really, the results are so close to perfect
that it really doesn't matter that I could do better.

-- 
Cheers,      "Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills the first
Rick Moen     woman she meets, and then teams up with three complete strangers
rick@linuxmafia.com       to kill again."  -- Rick Polito's That TV Guy column,
              describing the movie _The Wizard of Oz_