냐컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 栢栢栢栢昉께께굇굇굅같�|O|u|t|b|r|e|a|k|臍같굇굇굉께께栢栢栢� +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Issue #1 - Page 4 of 13 냐컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- synchronize your clock with ntp written and produced at fwaggle labs, inc who? ~~~~ i'm fwaggle. i'm sure you know me. if you don't, and you're reading this, you will very soon. why? because i'm like a leech. i get under your skin. this won't be the last time you hear from me. why? because i'm like herpes - i keep coming back. you'll think i'm cool by the time you finish reading this. why? well actually chances are you probably won't. unless you already do. which is doubtful. why? because i keep asking myself these stupid ass fucking questions that's why. you want 31 flavours? baskin robins is where your ass should be at. why? ~~~~ ever told your friend to meet up with you at say 10, and there you are waiting at 10:15, and he/she rocks up and says "nu-huh, it's 10 now!" - when your chronograph (geek word for clock) clearly shows that it's 10:15? well, given that people aren't the most accurate of animals - think of how two computers must feel when they have a difference of opinion over the time. even a difference of a few seconds can screw things up (differences of 30 seconds or more can break an hybrid irc network apart permanently, until an operator intervenes), so it'd be helpful if the clocks would stay accurate. you think that's bad? consider this: you're one of multiple users who are utilizing shared source code on a samba share. your clock is 5 minutes behind another user, who's just compiled the sources. then 2 minutes later you come along, and hit compile. your compiler looks, and the files all look up to date (the executable/object file's date - created by the other user - is later than the updated source code, which you just edited), so it doesn't compile your changes. you're left tearing your hair out trying to figure out why the code you added 2 minutes ago doesn't work. so, we've established that time synchronization is a good idea. let's move on, before someone gets hurt (me?). what? ~~~~~ there are literally gazillions (yep, that's a gazillion) of time clients and servers out there. here's a few of the unix variety: o daytime - returns the date in a plain text format ala: /bin/date o time - returns the seconds from the epoch in a binary format o ntpd (formerly xntpd) - a full featured network time protocol surely there's others out there, but these are the main ones. daytime and time are bot inaccurate (only accurate to a second i believe) and somewhat outdated. they're both incorporated into the internet superserver (inetd) on almost all unix boxen, but most modern distributions disable them by default (they can be used in certain exploits, and let's face it - the less running services, the better). in this article, we're going to be discussing ntpd - or more correctly - the network time protocol system. it's an all-in-one time solution, including time server, time client, as well as a balancing/comparing/averaging/skew detecting time management system. what's so good about it? well basically it does everything a time daemon could ever hope to do. it's the absolute best way to ensure that your clock stays smack on the tick right. where? ~~~~~~ the ntp homepage really has all the information you'll need, as well as a download of the actual package AND as if that wasn't enough - there's links to a bunch of other great time software for windows for example! the url is: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~ntp/index.html installation is really simple. download, untar/gz, ./configure, then make and make install. simple routine really. now, you can use ntp for a lot more than what i'm going to explain - in fact, i'm only touching the tip of the ice berg. the fact of the matter is that i don't need to make use of all the features ntp has to offer. because of this, and the fact that i'm FAR too lazy to do any actual research, i've decided to just make this a primer - if you want to know more, then read the fucking manual. ;) how? ~~~~ once you have ntp installed, simply edit it's configuration file (usually /etc/ntp.conf). mine simply looks like this: server 127.127.1.0 prefer driftfile /etc/ntp.drift then, start ntpd by typing "ntpd". now, i don't use ntpd to synchronize my timeservers clock, i just use it to provide the ntp service to my other machines. i use a crontab with the following script to keep my timeservers' clock in check: 0 0 * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate [ip] >/dev/null 2>&1 the ip address is of a public timeserver which is as close to you as possible (in terms of both geographic location and network routing) and in the same timezone as you. now, before you go running off and picking a timeserver - read for a minute. there are two heirachial levels of time servers: stratum 1 and stratum 2. stratum 1 servers are fewer, and feed stratum 2 servers - and they're under an awful ammount of load. NEVER use a stratum 1 server unless your a bigtime public timeserver admin (ie, the admin of a stratum 2 server). stratum 2 servers feed off of stratum 1 servers, and feed other servers. of course, the best solution is to use your ISP's ntp server - IF they offer it. if they don't email them and bug them to - they should. it would cut down on load on the stratum 2 servers. a lot of isp's won't, for whatever reason (the jackasses), so if they don't, then grab a nearby stratum 2 server from this list: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/clock2.htm windows? ~~~~~~~~ of course, for unix boxen it would be a simple matter to copy the cron job and change the upstream timeserver's ip to your LAN's timeserver's ip.. but what about windows boxen? well it just so happens that there's a win32 port of ntpdate! yep, and it's great (especially if you want a completely hidden network update daemon). you can download it here: http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/ntptime.exe http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/ntptime.cpl ntptime.exe has no arguments at all, so you might wanna grab ntptime.cpl as well, and copy it to your windows\system directory, then go into control panel and use it to configure ntptime. ntptime in amazingly easy to set up - in fact there's only about four options. because windows lacks crond, you can set ntptime to repeatedly set the clock (i like to make it do it every 24 hours) and an entry in startup, the run registry key, or in the win.ini takes care of starting it up. there's no tray icons, and once you're done configuring it you can remove the control panel icon to stop people from meddling with it. don't forget to use the ip address of your windows box, to save traffic on the upstream servers! what now? ~~~~~~~~~ well.. if all goes well, you should have a perfectly harmonious working environment, with all clocks set pretty damn close to each other. no more bickering over what time it is! fwaggle http://fwaggle.net/