Talk:Time server

Stratum timeservers

This information was on stratum (disambiguation):

The term stratum is also used in other areas like stratum time servers, in this case stratum indicates the importance of this time server over an other same purpose server. Usually the stratum level is used to indicate whether clients or servers are intended to use these as their time source.

I did not really understand it because it was vaguely incoherent, and I have no technical knowledge. However, I moved the material, as it seems more appropriate here. I also rewrote it in an attempt to make it more comprehensible. However, since I know nothing about the subject, I'm not sure if it was right in the first place, I may have inadvertently made a mistake. I rephrased it thus:

The term "stratum" is sometimes used to distinguish stratum time servers. The stratum indicates the place of a particular time server in a hierarchy of servers. The stratum level is typically used to indicate whether clients or servers are intended to use that machine as their time source.

If anyone has any technical knowledge, please review this and delete it or modify it as appropriate. OneVeryBadMan 12:48, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

I've now replaced this text entirely, with something that I hope is clearer. -- The Anome 13:28, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Stratums are the layers of time services provided through the use of the full NTP service. Stratum-0 represents the top of the time-distribution tree and is generally kept by the master timing laboratory like NIST or the USNO for instance. The clocks directly attached to it are generally referred to as Stratum-1 but also any clock with an external reference clock or oscillator is also referred to as Stratum-1.

Generally Stratum-2 clocks may be more stable and more available than Stratum-1 time services and so are potentially the better choice. Also NTP is a peculiar protocol because it does not share computing capabilities well since it wants to immediately process interrupts as soon as they happen to insure proper tracking of the time-sense or heartbeat being used to better discipline the ticking of the software based NTP clock.

Link to External How-To

I added a link to an external "how-to" site which describes the steps required to add time servers to those normally available in Windows. Unfortunately this link is being removed by other users, citing WP:NOTHOWTO. I think this is somewhat overzealous. If those users carefully read WP:NOTHOWTO they should realise that it refers specifically to article content, not links. There are thousands of WP articles with links to tutorials and further reading with instructional content, most of which are entirely appropriate.

The link which I have added provides the clearest information I could find on this subject. I have no association with the linked site. I welcome anyone who anyone can find a better source for this information.

As one of the overzealous editors, may I acknowledge the deficiency in my contribution? Your point is sound, in that I should also have mentioned WP:ELNO, specifically #11. --Old Moonraker (talk) 12:58, 27 February 2010 (UTC)