NTP Precision Limitations

Discussions focus on the limitations of NTP in terms of precision, security, and reliability for high-accuracy needs, with frequent mentions of alternatives like PTP, chrony, and GPS-based syncing.

➡️ Stable 0.6x DevOps & Infrastructure
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#9563
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Keywords

e.g TL CPU au.pool TP PTP MITM DNS www.pool DR ntp clock clocks synchronization server sync syncing atomic tcp network

Sample Comments

shin_lao Feb 16, 2017 View on HN

NTP isn't enough, you need PTP.

jruohonen Jan 26, 2024 View on HN

About time, given NTP's debatable (in)security history.

Cshelton Sep 21, 2018 View on HN

Ah, I've never had a use case for anything more accurate than NTP

simcop2387 Sep 28, 2017 View on HN

I wonder if any of the other ntp implementations (chrony et al) suffer from this same issue?

angersock Jul 24, 2014 View on HN

Should've used NTP or PTP.

xorcist Dec 20, 2014 View on HN

SNTP is close to useless. Your time server could be off and you'd happily follow along.

scurvy Jun 29, 2015 View on HN

You aint running ntp if you need nanosecond precision and accuracy.

beervirus Sep 8, 2021 View on HN

Why not just use NTP to get time data from someone else’s (more accurate) atomic clock?

brohee Jun 18, 2019 View on HN

Best case NTP is in the order of millisecond precision. Completely inadequate for this case.

WelcomeShorty Apr 26, 2023 View on HN

Why the complexity of NTP (network & internet) when you could use a GPS syncing wall clock for much less?