NTP Client not Syncing to Local Server

We have an ntp server run on a Windows machine which we want the debian device to sync from. I have tried numerous other suggestions in similar questions, none of which have had any results. This includes

  • no ufw present
  • only the single line "server 10.60.58.102" in ntp.conf
  • "tinker panic 0" at start of ntp.conf
  • "burst" "iburst" "prefer" "flag1 1" flags for the server/fudge lines
ntpq -p
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
 10.66.58.102    .LOCL.           1 u   36   64    1    0.715  208264.   0.002
 0.debian.pool.n .POOL.          16 p    -   64    0    0.000    0.000   0.002
*combine-window. 110.142.180.39   2 u   31   64    1  141.888    9.062  12.209
 speedtest.cribb 139.99.222.72    3 u   29   64    1  147.905    9.737  11.597

As can be seen from above, the offset is approximately 208 seconds to the desired server which it refuses to sync from. It never has the asterixis next to this server for any of the ntp.conf configurations that I have tried. Although it does appear to sometimes lower the offset over time by about ~5-10ms occasionally (once every minute or so).

Any help getting it to sync with the desired LAN NTP server appreciated.


Solution 1:

Your NTP is functional. LAN NTP server was discarded because it does not agree with internet sources.

First character of peers from ntpd -p is the tally code. * means system peer, the best one according to the algorithms. reach 1 implies ntpd was just restarted, need to wait a few minutes for the first few packets, and for all the pool servers to be resolved.

The two internet sources agree: about 9 ms offset from this host, plus or minus less than 1 ms. And good performing, low jitter for hosts 150 ms away. In contrast, 10.66.58.102 is 208,000 ms offset. That enormous difference cannot intersect the small error bars of the other two.

Fix the Windows box to use a well performing reference clock. A public NTP service can work for this, such as the NTP Pool project, same as the Linux host.