🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1hr64iINNmq7@transfer.stratus.com> dan@quiensabe.az.stratus.com (Dan Danz) writes:
   ...you can't just run the ntp daemon on your local machine because
   it will forever be bringing up the dialup SLIP line.  So you have
   to put up with some inaccuracy.

If your SLIP (or PPP) software offers a packet filtering capability,
this isn't a problem.  For example, my home workstation will pass NTP
packets on the wire when the link is already up for some other
purpose, but an NTP packet isn't interesting enough to cause the link
to be brought up, nor does an NTP packet count against the idle timer.
So the NTP daemon gets to look at its peers only when I'm already
using the line for something else that matters more to me than
timekeeping.

My normal activity, connecting between home and office (and thence to
the Internet), keeps the line up often enough and long enough to allow
my home NTP daemon to get a good chime fix from the office servers.
It drifts a little more than if it had a full-time connection, but far
less than if it only got a snapshot once a day.

Packet filters are good for something besides building firewalls.
--
Bob Sutterfield, Morning Star Technologies            +1 614 451 1883
1760 Zollinger Rd, Columbus Ohio USA, 43221           +1 800 558 7827
bob@MorningStar.Com                                   +1 614 459 5054 (FAX)