The default for maxclock is 10. This includes the "pool" entries, of which the stock Debian configuration has four: pool 0.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst pool 1.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst pool 2.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst pool 3.debian.pool.ntp.org iburst
As a result, the default is to use 6 pool servers. http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Support/SelectingOffsiteNTPServers says "the general rule is for 2n+1 to protect against 'n' falsetickers". (It goes on to discuss the exception for n=1, which is not relevant here.) If that's true, then it seems like odd numbers of servers are better, all things being equal. From there, it seems like I should set maxclock to either 11 (so 11-4 = 7 servers) or 9 (so 9-4 = 5 servers). Any flaws in this logic? Any thoughts on whether 7 servers or 5 servers is better? The same page says, "Conventional wisdom is that using at least five upstream time servers would probably be a good idea, and you may want more." The conservative choice is 7, but is that likely to make a meaningful difference compared to 5? -- Richard _______________________________________________ devel mailing list devel@ntpsec.org http://lists.ntpsec.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
