Configuring The Client
Server Address
NTP servers are managed by several organizations. The pool.ntp.org project and Network Time Foundation are probably the two most famous. The pool.ntp.org project organize servers into pools whereas Network Time Foundation maintains a list of valid NTP servers. The servers are divided into two categories: Stratum 1 and Stratum 2.
The NTP pool servers are divided into zones. If you want to use a server in Europe you can use set the server address to europe.pool.ntp.org. For North America the server address is north-america.pool.ntp.org. Zones also exists for countries. To use a server in for example Germany the server address should be set to de.pool.ntp.org. For Switzerland the address should be ch.pool.ntp.org.
Network Time Foundation has a website on http://support.ntp.org/ The pool.ntp.org project website is located at https://www.ntppool.org/
Pool server addresses will automatically be prefixed with 0, 1, 2 or 3 in order to lower the risk of choosing a none-responsive server.
Server Port
NTP servers use port 123 as default. Only under special circumstances is the NTP server port different from 123.
Interval Between Requests
The Amiga hardware clock will slowly drift away from true time. The drift is determined by several factors and is small, but the drift is not insignificant. Request are repeatedly sent to the NTP server in order to keep the Amiga hardware clock as close to true time as possible.
The requests are sent in certain intervals defined by the interval parameter. The interval should be specified using milliseconds. One thousand (1.000) milliseconds are equal to one second. The max value is 172.800.000 equal to 48 hours.
Adjustment Threshold
Due to the accuracy of NTP servers and the nature of Amiga CPUs it does not make sense to adjust the Amiga clock on every response from the NTP server. Processing the response could take longer time than anticipated. The amount of accepted inaccuracy is set using the threshold parameter. The threshold should be specified using micro- seconds. One million microseconds (1.000.000) are equal to one second.
Read Only
It is possible to send request to the NTP server without setting the Amiga hardware clock. This option can be handy when debugging time zone setup and other time related parameters.
Expert Mode
Advanced settings are hidden from the settings window when expert mode is not enabled. The advanced settings are server port, interval between requests, adjustment threshold, connection timeout, verbosity level and commodity priority.
Connection Timeout
In some cases, a connection to the NTP server cannot be established or the NTP server simply does respond. To avoid an infinitive wait for a response the connection will instead make a time out. The timeout interval should be specified using milliseconds. One thousand (1.000) milliseconds are equal to one second. The max value is half of the value of interval between requests.
Logging
It is possible view log messages using the supplied tool TimeLogger.
The logger facility can be turned off with the NOLOG switch.
Automatically Synchronization
Sometimes it is feasible to start without synchronization. The clock is synchronized in the background, only when synchronization is active. By default synchronization is not active.
Time Zone Display
Different options for displaying the current time zone exists. The most common is a combination of time zone name and time zone offset from GMT. The ARexx documentation describes the time zone display methods in details.
Time Zone
If the local time zone is expressed as a POSIX TZ compatible string, an optional setting is available.
Time Zone Value
The most simple way to expressed the local time zone is in hours and minutes from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or UTC. One hour ahead is equal to 100. One hour behind is equal to -100. Two and a half hour ahead is equal to 230.
Time Zone Abbreviation
If no name is given for the local time zone, the time zone is shown as hours and minutes from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It is possible to specify a time zone abbreviation for better readability.
Daylight Saving Time
Sometimes is feasible to force a standard one hour ahead daylight saving time (DST). Use this option if needed.
Caveats
TimeKeeper does not start as a background process. When started in the startup-sequence it will by default block execution. Use the run command to avoid this behaviour:
RUN >NIL: TimeKeeper