As part of our planned migration from a server-oriented infrastructure to a services-orientated infrastructure, we have recently made some changes to the University's Network Time Protocol servers.
This change may require users to update their computer's configuration.
Windows XP users can make the required change by going to the Start menu and selecting Run. In the text box that appears, type cmd and press OK. This will start a command prompt. In the command prompt window, type the following:
net stop w32time
net time /setsntp:ntp.ru.ac.za
net start w32time
exit
Linux/Unix users can make this change by editing /etc/ntp.conf and making sure it contains the following server line:
server ntp.ru.ac.za prefer
All other server lines should be deleted.
More information on configuring these and other clients can be found at http://help.ru.ac.za/ask_index.php?submit_...tId=53&rulink=1.
You'll notice from the above examples that a hostname ntp.ru.ac.za now exists. This will always refer to the current list of NTP servers and is the prefered way of talking to the NTP servers. Using this alias will round robin clients between all available servers. As with other services, there also exists an a.ntp, b.ntp and f.ntp, but this list is subject to change.
The DHCP servers are serving the correct values for these NTP servers, but unfortunately not many clients honour these settings. As a result, most users who make use of NTP will have to make these changes.