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Xref: sserve comp.protocols.time.ntp:3293 comp.os.386bsd.questions:7532
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.time.ntp,comp.os.386bsd.questions
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!nih-csl!postman
From: crtb@helix.nih.gov (Chuck Bacon)
Subject: FreeBSD and ntpdate behave strangely
Message-ID: <1993Dec20.132523.14017@alw.nih.gov>
Sender: postman@alw.nih.gov (AMDS Postmaster)
Organization: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 13:25:23 GMT
Lines: 32

I'm running a straight FreeBSD102+syscons on a Compudyne 486DX33
with AMI bios.  Last night, I collected and built xntp3.3b.tar.Z
from louie.udel.edu (didn't install it though), and discovered the
following strange behavior:

My PC was a couple minutes off, and I had a current SLIP connection
(a good one, via V.32terbo) to the outside world.  I ran ntpdate to
a nearby host (which has been running xntpd for a long time);
ntpdate reported a sizeable offset, and that should have been the
end of it.

However, while telnetted to this nearby host, I sunc. my wristwatch
there using `date`.  Just to check, I then did `date` on my PC.
Behold, the PC was 14 sec. slow!

I ran ntpdate again, hoping to set the time more closely.
Reaction time over the SLIP connection was within a second.
The offset reported this time was about 0.9 seconds.
I checked with my wristwatch, and my PC *still* appeared about
14 sec. slow.  I telnetted back to the same host, and my wristwatch
was within a second.  Back to my PC, and my watch was 14 sec. ahead
of the PC.

A repeat of ntpdate results in a different offset, again well less
than one second, and yet the PC seems to remain 14 seconds behind
the host with which it is allegedly syncing.  Any clues?

	Chuck Bacon - crtb@helix.nih.gov
		ABHOR SECRECY	-   DEFEND PRIVACY
--
	Chuck Bacon - crtb@helix.nih.gov
		ABHOR SECRECY	-   DEFEND PRIVACY