skl@odin.math.uiuc.edu (Soren Lundsgaard) (03/20/91)
I have one machine called 'o' on our little area of the subnet talking to ntp-[012].cso.uiuc.edu, running just fine, keeping track of the time. I would like it to send the time on to two other machines called 'a' and 'c' on the same subnet, so I have put a line 'broadcast 128.174.111.255' in ntp.conf, and I have started 'xtnpd -b -f /etc/ntp.drift' on the other machines. 'a' and 'c' syncronize quite well to 'o', we are not looking for any great amounts of accuracy on these machines. I am using broadcast because it means a fairly short command line and no ntp.conf file, and because I suspect a number of other machines in our department will be set up this way. I have a number of questions about this set up. Does this sound like a reasonable thing to do? Should I have two machines talking to ntp-[012].cso? Is there any relative gain or loss in running broadcast versus peer. What is a reasonable figure for broadcastdelay in this setup (is the default good)? Can I ask a machine at another place on the network to broadcast to my subnet, and can I broadcast from 'o' to another subnet? Can I lengthen the polling interval without a serious loss in accuracy? I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with using the broadcast parts of xntp. I suppose posting would be appropriate if it is of general interest, otherwise mail to skl@uiuc.edu skl.