[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or notice, for example, the setting
> of accurate clocks via the internet. I've a program here called 'Net Time'
> which constantly polls various 'time servers' around the net. When
> you set it up, one site returns data reported to have latency of .150 ms
> and another has latency of .75 ms, etc, in other words _none _ of
> them display (on my screen) -exactly- the right time. But the
> program takes a half dozen or so of these time servers, and averages
> the latencies then makes an adjustment which is as close as one can
> get apparently, to the 'correct time'
NTP (Network Time Protocol) and the associated software is a science in itself. The round-trip latency is used in the time calculations, as is the averaging of multiple servers to find correct servers and outliers. With good hardware, microsecond to nanosecond accuracy is possible.
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(The network time protocol project) has a lot of information, including scientific papers.
Koos van den Hout
Camp Wireless, wireless Internet access at campsites| Koos van den Hout
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keyid DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 or RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5| Fax +31-30-2817051
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for mentioning this site. I went over earlier today and selected from the 'us.pool.ntp.org' numbers for my computer clock settings. PAT]