From owner-freebsd-current  Fri Jun 14 19:55:03 1996
Return-Path: owner-current
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id TAA15674
          for current-outgoing; Fri, 14 Jun 1996 19:55:03 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from rocky.sri.MT.net (rocky.sri.MT.net [204.182.243.10])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id TAA15664
          for <current@FreeBSD.org>; Fri, 14 Jun 1996 19:55:00 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from nate@localhost) by rocky.sri.MT.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA23487; Fri, 14 Jun 1996 20:54:58 -0600
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 20:54:58 -0600
From: Nate Williams <nate@sri.MT.net>
Message-Id: <199606150254.UAA23487@rocky.sri.MT.net>
To: current@FreeBSD.org
Subject: NTP gurus
Sender: owner-current@FreeBSD.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

OK, I'm trying to actually us the information that Bruce setup to make
my system 'more accurate'.  (Thanks Paul for putting it under
bootverbose though, it's much nicer now).

I have a ntp server serving my domain, but it's on the end of a modem
which has compression turned on which according to Garrett is a 'bad
thing' for ntp.  However, the compression does me more good than damage,
so I'll leave it on.

Understanding that my server may not be completely accurate, I am still
using it to keep the rest of the machines in my domain in sync.  At most
they are a half a minute off from each other, vs. 10's of minutes in the
past.

Anyway, back to my question.  How do I determine 'how accurage' my
system's clock is based on /etc/ntp.drift?  What are good numbers to
have?

On my ntp server box (a 486), it currently has a value of '-7.776 0'
using the external ntp servers
but on my Pentium box with the tweaked parameters using the values from
-current, it's value using *only* the local server is '8.548 0'.

Is this good?  Is this bad?  I don't know what is considered good, so
can someone tell me a good goal to shoot for?

Thanks!


Nate