Network Time Service - Network Time Protocol (NTP)

A knowledge base article about Network Time Service - Network Time Protocol (NTP) provided by the UC Berkeley IT Service Hub - Knowledge Portal

What is Network Time

Accurate time is important for computer operations and data analysis. Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a networking protocol facilitating clock synchronization between computer systems.

The goal of the protocol is to provide accuracies up to the order of a millisecond. The protocol takes into account delays such as network latencies and computational delays.

The goal of this service is to meet the requirements of a high quality network time sources in support of departments running their own time system. In order to provide highly accurate network time, Network Services operates two SpectraCom GPS Clock appliances enabling us to provide stratum one support via the Network Time Protocol (NTP).

How to Use the Time Service

Configuring computers and network devices to use a network time server is outside the scope of this document but almost all Internet ready equipment supports the use of network time.

This service is not intended to support all campus clients; it is aimed at providing departments a reliable local time source to use with their internal timeservers. Systems requiring the highest level of time synchronization are welcome to use this time service as one or two of their larger pool of sources

Please note that it is recommended that at least four time servers be used to ensure accurate time. Network Services only provides two devices, others should be selected from other tier 1 or tier 2 sources.

More information on public time service as well as a list of available servers is available at Network Time Protocol Public Services Project

 

Campus Stratum-1 Time Servers
HostnameIPv4 AddressIPv6 Address
ntp1.net.berkeley.edu169.229.128.1342607:f140:ffff:8000::8006:0:a
ntp2.net.berkeley.edu169.229.128.1422607:f140:ffff:8000::8003:0:a