Date/Time accuracy (was Re: First TOM1 image under Rob's Software)

["Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com>]

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 droege@snapmail.us wrote:

> I notice that the computer times agree with my fancy watch, so no more
> time problems.  Slowly we get there.

Tom,

PC clocks are not known for their accuracy.

I would suggest that you syncronize your machines with NIST using
their internet service.  See:
  http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/service/its.htm

They don't seem to have a Linux binary but you should be able
to FTP the source code and compile it yourself.  Its easy
compared with some Source packages.

You then have to setup a cron entry (man cron & man crontab)
to run the nistime program.  Since you want your times to be
accurate you should presumably set it up to run slightly before
your runs each night.

You may want to run some traceroutes to determine which NIST time
server provides the fastest link to your site.

If you want to get really fancy you could probably get a GPS
reciver for one machine on your net and then use that as a
local time server.

Robert