Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UDEL.EDU!Mills
From: Mills@UDEL.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  NSFnet and time sync.
Message-ID: <8909041333.aa07291@huey.udel.edu>
Date: 4 Sep 89 17:33:48 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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Philip,

I don't think HW watches this frequency, so I will try to explain what I
understand is their policy. The NSS' do in fact fun a (very old and hacked)
version of NTP, but chime only among themselves and a couple of handpicked
stratum-1 tickers outside net 129.140. However, they (IBM and Merit) are
not willing to support ubiquitous NTP access for fear of abuse, either in 
numbers or evil purpose. In order to encourage a more liberal agenda, I
persuaded Ford Scientific Labs to donate their GOES receiver and Fuzzball to
Merit, if only to operate as a standalone time server, but the actual
move has not occured yet. I will of course continue to pursue this agenda
and maybe someday it will happen. Meanwhile, while NTP access is blocked,
ICMP Timestamp still works. Before you get further ideas, be advised the
NSS' do not seem to be very reliable sources of synchronized time, for what
reason I can't tell. The regional Fuzzballs are much more stable and precise,
even the stratum-2 servers.

Dave