NTP pool

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NTP pool
URLwww.ntppool.org/en/
IPv6 supportYes, but partly[citation needed]
Launched2003; 23 years ago (2003)[1]

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The NTP pool is a dynamic collection of networked computers that volunteer to provide highly accurate time via the Network Time Protocol to clients worldwide. The machines that are "in the pool" are part of the pool.ntp.org domain as well as of several subdomains divided by geographical zone and are distributed to NTP clients via round-robin DNS. The geographic zone selection is sometimes unnecessary, obviated either by authoritative DNS servers that use geolocation or anycast server addresses.[2]

As of May 2026, the pool consists of 3,790 active servers on IPv4 and 2,280 active servers on IPv6.[3][a] Because of the decentralization of this project, accurate statistics on the number of clients cannot be obtained, but according to the project's website, the pool provides time to hundreds of millions of systems around the world.[5]

The pool consists of the following parts:

  • Website
  • NTP time servers. Because of client growth, the project is in perpetual need of more servers.[6][7][8] The more time servers there are in the pool, the lower the resource demand on each member. Joining the pool requires a static IP address, and accurate time from another NTP server. Joining the server can be done on the website.
  • Monitoring clients, which fetch time from candidate NTP servers and compare it with known-good values, producing scores that reflect accuracy and reliability. Only NTP servers with scores greater than 10 are considered for DNS distribution.[9]
  • Specialized DNS servers, which direct clients to the actual pool servers using a combination of the requested zone and geolocation of the requesting client. To add servers to pools volunteers can submit information to the organizations running them.[2]

This project was started by Adrian von Bidder in January 2003 after a discussion on comp.protocols.time.ntp about abuse of the public stratum 1 servers.[10][11] The system has been maintained and developed by Ask Bjørn Hansen since July 2005.[12]

The NTP pool occasionally see misuse and abuse, mostly from corporate vendors with many users shipping defectively designed software.[13][14][15] The project advises that vendors apply for their own zones, so that usage patterns are easier to keep track of.[16]

References

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  1. ^ IPv6 support is only partially enabled, via domain names starting with 2..[4]

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."What the NTP Pool can offer". Retrieved April 29, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."pool.ntp.org: NTP Pool DNS servers". www.ntppool.org.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."All Pool Servers". Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The time has come: we must enable IPv6 entirely". NTP Pool Project. 13 April 2021.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Pool Introduction". Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  6. ^ "Reached 500 servers - Welcome Slashdot". Ask Bjørn Hansen. January 15, 2006.
  7. ^ "Yes, the pool needs more servers". Ask Bjørn Hansen. August 11, 2009.
  8. ^ "The NTP Pool needs more servers". Ask Bjørn Hansen. June 21, 2012.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Monitoring system / Technical details". news.ntppool.org.
  10. ^ "Public servers abuse". David L. Mills. January 21, 2003.
  11. ^ "ntp DNS round robin experiment". Adrian 'Dagurashibanipal' von Bidder. January 27, 2003.
  12. ^ "The Future is Bright, The Future is ...". Adrian 'Dagurashibanipal' von Bidder. July 24, 2005.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."NANOG mailing list archive: Recent NTP pool traffic increase: 2016-12-19". NANOG/opendac from shaw.ca. 2016-12-19. Archived from the original on 2017-09-24. Retrieved 2016-12-20.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Aleksandersen, Daniel (2017-11-23). "TP-Link repeater firmware squanders 715 MB/month". Ctrl Blog. Archived from the original on 2017-12-20. Retrieved 2017-12-21.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Об инциденте с NTP-серверами" (in русский). Yandex. 2024-11-27.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."pool.ntp.org: The NTP Pool for vendors". www.ntppool.org.
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