Where do I get RFC 1305? RFC 1305 is available in html or many other formats including PostScript and PDF.
How does NTP work? Superficially, NTP is a software daemon operating in a client mode, server mode, or both. The initial distribution is for UNIX servers and workstations. There are many secondary distributions for Windows NT, 2000 and other platforms. Regardless of the platform and operating system, it always works over UDP/IP. The purpose of NTP is to reveal the offset of the client’s local clock relative to a time server’s local clock. The client sends a time request packet (UDP) to the server which is time stamped and returned. The NTP client computes the local clock offset from the time server and makes an adjustment. But network latencies, the need to prioritize multiple servers, and the requirement to be self-healing leads to a fairly complicated, yet robust algorithm. Back to Top Does NTP supply the time to a computer or server? Technically no. The purpose of NTP is to reveal client clock offset; not deliver time. The operating system (OS) delivers time.
