SCOUG-HELP Mailing List Archives

<< Previous Message << >> Next Message >>

Date:	Sun, 28 Oct 2001 10:23:13 PDT
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: nistime ? ntp107 ?

Content Type: text/plain

=====================================================
If you are responding to someone asking for help who
may not be a member of this list, be sure to use the
REPLY TO ALL feature of your email program.
=====================================================

Harry Chris Motin wrote:
>
> I use TimeKeeper/2, linked to the NIST in Boulder,
> Colorado. That worked just fine this morning

Hi Harry,

That's an interesting program. I _did_ install it shortly after
midnight and took a quick look at it, but now (8 hours later) it claims
my "evaluation period has expired" and won't run any more. 8 hours is a
mighty short evaluation period.

TimeKeeper/2 is a PM program. I don't know of a way to run a PM program
during bootup.

Running the ntp client during bootup to jam sync the clock is nice
because that way programs in your Startup folder aren't using a "wrong"
clock setting when they start (assuming that's also how the ntp client
is started). I've occasionally come back to the office and found a
machine hard locked with the clock frozen, so on reboot I have the wrong
time; a bad clock value can also occur if your machine is off and either
your clock battery finally dies or you go through a Daylight Saving
boundary.

Actually, there are three separate tasks that the ntp client(s) should
perform:

1. Sync clock during bootup (before Startup folder runs).
2. Keep clock synced while system running.
3. Resync clock at Daylight Saving boundaries.

None of the ones I looked at can do all three.

OS2NTPD seems best for "2) keeping the clock synced" because of its
constant monitoring and averaging of the error, which none of the others
do. It won't do a jam sync during bootup, however.

For "1) bootup sync" you can't use a PM program and OS2NTPD doesn't have
that functionality, so daytime, nistime or ntp(107) are probably the
only three options for an ntp client run from the config.sys file.

And for "3) Daylight Saving resync" I'll have to investigate a bit
further. OS2NTPD oscillates (last night it took about 1-1/2 hours to
settle down according to its log file). In the past I've tried manually
resetting the time just after DS hit and iirc OS2NTPD was happy with
that, so using a second ntp client at these twice-a-year times to jam
sync the clock might be the answer.

- Peter

=====================================================

To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-help".

For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".

=====================================================

Return to [ 28 | October | 2001 ]

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.