ntpMerlin What is ntpMerlin?

[SilentStorm]

Would someone kindly explain to me what ntpMerlin exactly is, what it's used for and when I would want/need it?

I was just look through some of the addons on amtm and I came across this, but I'm not quite sure that I fully understand what an NTP is and what purpose it serves.

 

[MvW]

Would someone kindly explain to me what ntpMerlin exactly is, what it's used for and when I would want/need it?

I was just look through some of the addons on amtm and I came across this, but I'm not quite sure that I fully understand what an NTP is and what purpose it serves.

NTP is an abbreviation for Network Time Protocol. It's a large network of timeservers with stratum servers at the top of the hierarchy to provide you and your devices with the most accurate time possible.

As for what it does and why would you want it, it's a personal matter. Asuswrt-Merlin has a builtin NTP-client and server, which can be configured (limited) through the UI. ntpMerlin expands these possibilities.

I think the first post of ntpMerlin is self-explanatory. It tells you what it does and show screenshots of what options you can fiddle with and some cool graphs about how it's performing.

ntpMerlin - ntpMerlin v3.x

v3.4.5 Updated 2021-08-05 ntpMerlin implements an NTP time server for AsusWRT Merlin with charts for daily, weekly and monthly summaries of performance. A choice between ntpd and chrony is available. ntpMerlin is free to use under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPL 3.0). This...

www.snbforums.com

Edit: please edit the prefix of your title to ntpMerlin, thay way threads are easier recognizable and can be grouped per add-on as well if someone is looking for answers on a specific add-on.
(I just did it. -rm)

 

[martinr]

I run many of the add-ons but I don’t use ntpMerlin. I may well be wrong - I await feedback - but I suspect ntpMerlin is one of those things that, it you have to ask what it is, you have no need of it. (That’s no criticism of your skills or capabilities- it also applies to me.)

 

[MvW]

I run many of the add-ons but I don’t use ntpMerlin. I may well be wrong - I await feedback - but I suspect ntpMerlin is one of those things that, it you have to ask what it is, you have no need of it. (That’s no criticism of your skills or capabilities- it also applies to me.)

Basically everyone can live without it. It's just... those sexy graphs which make me feeling all warm and fuzzy.
No, seriously. If it was a requirement, it was already incorporated in the firmware. Oh wait, it is, Merlin has it's own implementation which works just as well, it's just less customizable (and way less sexy).

 

[SilentStorm]

NTP is an abbreviation for Network Time Protocol. It's a large network of timeservers with stratum servers at the top of the hierarchy to provide you and your devices with the most accurate time possible.

As for what it does and why would you want it, it's a personal matter. Asuswrt-Merlin has a builtin NTP-client and server, which can be configured (limited) through the UI. ntpMerlin expands these possibilities.

I think the first post of ntpMerlin is self-explanatory. It tells you what it does and show screenshots of what options you can fiddle with and some cool graphs about how it's performing.

ntpMerlin - ntpMerlin v3.x

v3.4.5 Updated 2021-08-05 ntpMerlin implements an NTP time server for AsusWRT Merlin with charts for daily, weekly and monthly summaries of performance. A choice between ntpd and chrony is available. ntpMerlin is free to use under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPL 3.0). This...

www.snbforums.com

Edit: please edit the prefix of your title to ntpMerlin, thay way threads are easier recognizable and can be grouped per add-on as well if someone is looking for answers on a specific add-on.
(I just did it. -rm)

Perfect, thank you so much!

I run many of the add-ons but I don’t use ntpMerlin. I may well be wrong - I await feedback - but I suspect ntpMerlin is one of those things that, it you have to ask what it is, you have no need of it. (That’s no criticism of your skills or capabilities- it also applies to me.)

Yeah for sure.

 

[L&LD]

As most of @Jack Yaz's scripts, ntpMerlin is indispensable. Particularly in chronyd mode and in conjunction with Unbound. Makes the web feel fresh and new again like nothing else can.

 

[heysoundude]

As most of @Jack Yaz's scripts, ntpMerlin is indispensable. Particularly in chronyd mode and in conjunction with Unbound. Makes the web feel fresh and new again like nothing else can.

to expand on this: the closer a router's (and the devices connected to it) sync is with the clocks the backbone of the internet rely on, the more certain and smooth their operation will be.

Running an ntp server on your local network for your devices to look to locally rather than going off-site will keep everything ridiculously accurate and humming along so smoothly:



every so often you might be watching something on TV where the sound you hear doesn't match with the lips you see moving on screen - and your brain starts to wonder what's going on...the same thing happens with routers and other devices on down the line, and the further they are from a time source that keeps everything where it's supposed to be (in time), the less likely things will be because of delays and drift. 3.209 ppm clock drift...the Internet Exchange where my ISP hosts its servers runs a stratum 1 pool of 3 atomic clocks, and I'm only a ~7ms ping away.

 

[MvW]

As most of @Jack Yaz's scripts, ntpMerlin is indispensable. Particularly in chronyd mode and in conjunction with Unbound. Makes the web feel fresh and new again like nothing else can.

Nah, you just say that because you like sexy graphs too ;-)

 

[Wade Coxon]

And I just have to say this again.

Remember that ntp will not improve the operation of your Internet connection.
It will improve the accuracy of the time-of-day clocks in your router and your LAN devices and allow you to more accurately timestamp events occurring on your networked devices.

Inside all of your smart devices is one or more oscillator that "ticks" to provide a time reference to all of the device's components.
The ticks are designed to occur at regular intervals so that device's various components stay in sync with eachother and so that timekeeping within the device can occur.
The problem is that these oscillators tick frequency does drift due to physical changes due to temperature and whatnot.
This causes your device's clocks, that is to say, the time-of-day clock, to slowly drift and become innacurate.
NTP is designed to check on a more accurate source of time from the Internet, and then adjust your local clocks to compensate for your local drift.
NTP only adjusts the time-of-day clock in your electronic devices, it will not improve the drift in the underlying "ticking". It continually adjusts your clock to compensate for the variable oscillators.

 

[SilentStorm]

As most of @Jack Yaz's scripts, ntpMerlin is indispensable. Particularly in chronyd mode and in conjunction with Unbound. Makes the web feel fresh and new again like nothing else can.

to expand on this: the closer a router's (and the devices connected to it) sync is with the clocks the backbone of the internet rely on, the more certain and smooth their operation will be.

Running an ntp server on your local network for your devices to look to locally rather than going off-site will keep everything ridiculously accurate and humming along so smoothly:

View attachment 32712

every so often you might be watching something on TV where the sound you hear doesn't match with the lips you see moving on screen - and your brain starts to wonder what's going on...the same thing happens with routers and other devices on down the line, and the further they are from a time source that keeps everything where it's supposed to be (in time), the less likely things will be because of delays and drift. 3.209 ppm clock drift...the Internet Exchange where my ISP hosts its servers runs a stratum 1 pool of 3 atomic clocks, and I'm only a ~7ms ping away.

Thank you both, and to everyone else who replied to this thread.

I'll definitely give this a try.

 

[heysoundude]

@SilentStorm check out https://www.torix.ca/community-projects/ for server ideas for your .conf file. ;-D

 

[SilentStorm]

@SilentStorm check out https://www.torix.ca/community-projects/ for server ideas for your .conf file. ;-D

Thanks! In the process of setting this up right now. Will let you know if I have any questions.

Appreciate everyone's help once again.

 

[SilentStorm]

Quick question...

Unbound - unbound_manager (Manager/Installer utility for unbound - Recursive DNS Server)

This thread is for the discussion topic : unbound_manager script. As per the GitHub Hints/Tips: Differences between the operational modes Easy mode Advanced Mode 'Easy' mode - you have limited Install options: i.e. Advanced Options Stubby Integration DoT installs are not available...

www.snbforums.com

I'm following some of the pre-reqs on this page here.

I'm not able to find "[✔] Enable local NTP server=YES" under WAN. Have they moved or is this just not an option on my router?

EDIT: Sorry, I should've clarified this was for Unbound and not ntpMerlin, but wanted to follow @L&LD and try ntpMerlin in conjunction with Unbound.

EDIT2: Nevermind, couldn't find the setting so I just installed it through PuTTy and it said it was already on. Guess it was on by default.

 

[heysoundude]

 

[SilentStorm]

View attachment 32721

Yeah, I was under there but the NTP server setting wasn't showing up, weird. Anyhow, it detected that it was on by default so I guess that's that.

Now in terms of the NTP server link you sent me (https://www.torix.ca/community-projects/), where would you go to change these servers?

I'm assuming it's "option 3" in amtm under ntpMerlin? But when I do that I get
"Lock file found (age: 323 seconds) - stopping to prevent duplicate runs."

EDIT: Rebooted the router and it fixed itself. I'm into the file through nano.

 

[SilentStorm]

Please excuse my lack of knowledge here.

Found the file now. Is this server configuration correct? I don't know what then goes into !pool time.cloudflare.com iburst nts? What would I change that to? The host name? And would I delete server 3 since it's not needed only (0-2 are needed?)

Then pool pool.ntp.org iburst... what do I do with that? Sorry for the many questions. Trying to see if there's any other posts with the same question but not able to find any.

 

[heysoundude]

yikes...sorry got distracted with dinner and fallout...
you have to uncomment the lines - that means erase the ! on appropriate lines to run the instruction/reference the server/etc.
in your case,
pool ntp.torix.ca is a great place to start but I'd also add
server time.nrc.ca (if you listen to CBC maybe you'll get a kick out of this on your network)
server time.chu.nrc.ca
server tick.utoronto,ca
server tock.utoronto.ca

somewhere in one of these threads/topics I put the chronyc manpage for people to reference (it gives background into options like iburst and nts) for you to figure out if it might be good to use them in your implementation...google it or search here and read. they're not as daunting as you might believe

 

[SilentStorm]

yikes...sorry got distracted with dinner and fallout...
you have to uncomment the lines - that means erase the ! on appropriate lines to run the instruction/reference the server/etc.
in your case,
pool ntp.torix.ca is a great place to start but I'd also add
server time.nrc.ca (if you listen to CBC maybe you'll get a kick out of this on your network)
server time.chu.nrc.ca
server tick.utoronto,ca
server tock.utoronto.ca

somewhere in one of these threads/topics I put the chronyc manpage for people to reference (it gives background into options like iburst and nts) for you to figure out if it might be good to use them in your implementation...google it or search here and read. they're not as daunting as you might believe

Thanks so much. Will try this tomorrow and let you know how it goes!

And yes I do listen to CBC so I'll give that one a try as well

Also in terms of the graphs, are there any "ideal numbers" I should expect? Is there any number that is a matter of concern?

 

[heysoundude]

lower numbers are better, steady (linear or as close to it as you can get with horseshoes and hand grenades) is ideal
torix is stratum 1, the rest are stratum 2 - you want as many high quality (higher stratum) sources as possible

CBC's broadcast of NRC's time signal is well-known canadiana - i hoped you'd appreciate
the tick and tock of UofT (who said engineers are humourless?) can't hurt as sources either
if you poke around in the ntpMerlin threads, some people use WAY more reference servers than this ^

 

[SilentStorm]

lower numbers are better, steady (linear or as close to it as you can get with horseshoes and hand grenades) is ideal
torix is stratum 1, the rest are stratum 2 - you want as many high quality (higher stratum) sources as possible

CBC's broadcast of NRC's time signal is well-known canadiana - i hoped you'd appreciate
the tick and tock of UofT (who said engineers are humourless?) can't hurt as sources either
if you poke around in the ntpMerlin threads, some people use WAY more reference servers than this ^

Wait, does it actually broadcast something? Am I going to hear a Canadian classic everyday at 1 PM or something?

Where can I see this stratum data that you've mentioned? These are the only two graphs visible to me. I don't know if I'm crazy or not, I read somewhere it can take up to a day for things to synchronize accordingly?