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Date:	Wed, 1 Oct 2003 22:18:16 PDT7
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: time accuracy

Content Type: text/plain

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J. Pfisterer wrote:
>
> I downloaded the program and have started wading
> through the extensive documentation that came with it.
>
> What puzzles me is how it works (if it does) on a dial-up
> system. Obviously, I have not yet dialed into my ISP when
> I boot the system, so having the program called from either
> the Startup Folder or STARTUP.CMD would seem futile. Can I
> set it up to work on such a system?

I used OS2NTPD when I was on dialup, so I can confirm it works.

OS2NTPD calculates your computer's "clock drift" and stores the value in
a file named "drift", then continues to synchronize your clock even when
you aren't connected to the internet (i.e. no time server available).
That's another good thing about OS2NTPD -- intermittent connections
(such as dialup) work just fine.

So the answer is "it doesn't matter if you use dialup". If you're
connected, OS2NTPD will query the time servers and set your clock. If
you're not connected, OS2NTPD will use the known clock drift of your
system and keep your clock in sync. (TIME868 and the other NTP clock
setters don't do that afaik.)

By the way, I run OS2NTPD from my Startup Folder. It is the _original_
clock set which I run from startup.cmd, and for that I use DAYTIME.

A quick note for techies: OS2NTPD uses a phase-locked loop to calculate
how much the system clock has drifted. It then goes directly to the
clock hardware and does half-cycle correction so there is never any time
jump (your clock never jumps backward by one second or skips forward by
more than one second during drift correction). There _is_ a bit of
oscillation when you cross a daylight saving boundary.

- Peter

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