Automatically synchronising the date and time using the Internet’s time servers, can help prevent a computer time from drifting.
To enable a Linux computer to synchronise its time NTP server is installed and configured.
For Debian computers the ntp package can be installed using apt;
apt-get install ntp
The configuration file for ntp is to be found at
/etc/ntp.conf
The expectation is that a time server is chosen and configured for use in the configuration file. A list of time servers is available on the ntp home page
http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Servers/WebHome
I considered servers updated by www, seeing this list
http://support.ntp.org/bin/view/Servers/ServersSynchronizedByWWV
However, looking in the configuration file Debian automatically uses a range of servers. This will spread the load between them.
With no further adjustments, the clock on the computer was set correctly.
To see a list of servers being used for the synchronising of the date/time type
ntpq -p
neil@n1:~$ ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter
==============================================================================
*isaachayes.khre 204.123.2.72 2 u 309 512 377 172.027 29.630 1.268
+218-32-169-193. 129.70.132.32 3 u 209 512 377 63.397 18.853 3.204
+ns1.newsnet.li 217.147.223.78 3 u 246 512 377 39.236 24.201 1.902
-phyapp2.afoyi.c 47.187.174.51 2 u 244 512 377 358.030 7.419 6.964
I tried this on two different computers showing that each was using a different set of servers.
