{"slug": "ntp-pool", "name": "NTP Pool", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 4.289, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-11-12", "latest": "2026-10-09", "why": "It\u2019s such a simple thing to give back, and worth anyone who can make a stable contribution doing so.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It\u2019s such a simple thing to give back, and worth anyone who can make a stable contribution doing so.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "ntppool.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.ntppool.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["NTP Pool"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 794993248, "item_id": 49687078, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49687078", "by": "simonjgreen", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s such a simple thing to give back, and worth anyone who can make a stable contribution doing so.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m pretty sure this way they\u2019ve hardcoded the NTPs is actually against the ToS for use of the NTP pool too. The way a vendor embedding NTP is _meant_ to do so is documented here: https://www.ntppool.org/en/vendors.html On another note, back when I ran a web hosting business we hosted a few NTP servers in the pool. It\u2019s such a simple thing to give back, and worth anyone who can make a stable contribution doing so.", "context": "", "use_case": "Public NTP time servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm being cyberattacked by Tesla, Inc"}, {"id": 741754784, "item_id": 46359674, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46359674", "by": "loph", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "IMHO, most applications should use pool.ntp.org", "excerpt": "Only Boulder servers lost sync. To say NIST was off is clickbait hyperbole. This page: https://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi shows that NIST has > 16 NTP servers on IPv4, of those, 5 are in Boulder and were affected by the power failure. The rest were fine. However, most entities should not be using these top-level servers anyway, so this should have been a problem for exactly nobody. IMHO, most applications should ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "NIST was 5 \u03bcs off UTC after last week's power cut"}, {"id": 741714785, "item_id": 46357174, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46357174", "by": "evanriley", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "or just use ntppool https://www.ntppool.org/en/", "excerpt": "> Gah, just when you think you can trust time.nist.gov You still can... If you're that considered about 5 microseconds: Build your own Stratum 1 time server https://github.com/geerlingguy/time-pi or just use ntppool https://www.ntppool.org/en/", "context": "", "use_case": "Public NTP time servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "NIST was 5 \u03bcs off UTC after last week's power cut"}, {"id": 734394720, "item_id": 45899670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45899670", "by": "Bender", "date": "2025-11-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rather than money one can donate NTP servers to the pool.", "excerpt": "Rather than money one can donate NTP servers to the pool. [1] It can be a fun learning exercise in setting up a stable stratum-2 time server. One can create graphs from the optional logs. Why bother? Many of the rabbit holes one could venture down in learning to set up a stable time server can also benefit application servers in terms of latency, responsiveness, learning how to get clients to share resources and so m", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Please donate to keep Network Time Protocol up \u2013 Goal 1k"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["public ntp time servers", "running time server on vps"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686766", "title": "I'm being cyberattacked by Tesla, Inc", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46355949", "title": "NIST was 5 \u03bcs off UTC after last week's power cut", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49985548", "title": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45897457", "title": "Please donate to keep Network Time Protocol up \u2013 Goal 1k", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 800299600, "item_id": 50018725, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50018725", "by": "robinpie", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "NTP!!! https://dreamstation.systems/personal/ntppool.html", "excerpt": "NTP!!! https://dreamstation.systems/personal/ntppool.html", "context": "", "use_case": "Running time server on VPS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?"}, {"id": 794997184, "item_id": 49687324, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49687324", "by": "darwinlee", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "You must absolutely not use the default pool.ntp.org zone names as the default configuration in your application or appliance.", "excerpt": "\u201cYou must absolutely not use the default pool.ntp.org zone names as the default configuration in your application or appliance.\u201d ref: https://www.ntppool.org/en/vendors.html", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm being cyberattacked by Tesla, Inc"}, {"id": 794994992, "item_id": 49687187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49687187", "by": "jameshilliard", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "they ended up just using the default ntppool domains", "excerpt": "> The way a vendor embedding NTP is _meant_ to do so is documented here: https://www.ntppool.org/en/vendors.html Note that in the past I've had companies writing embedded linux based firmware using ntppool for time sync request their own vendor zones, however a lot of those requests were ignored so it's unclear if that's still expected. In the end they ended up just using the default ntppool domains since they never ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm being cyberattacked by Tesla, Inc"}, {"id": 794993248, "item_id": 49687078, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49687078", "by": "simonjgreen", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It\u2019s such a simple thing to give back, and worth anyone who can make a stable contribution doing so.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m pretty sure this way they\u2019ve hardcoded the NTPs is actually against the ToS for use of the NTP pool too. The way a vendor embedding NTP is _meant_ to do so is documented here: https://www.ntppool.org/en/vendors.html On another note, back when I ran a web hosting business we hosted a few NTP servers in the pool. It\u2019s such a simple thing to give back, and worth anyone who can make a stable contribution doing so.", "context": "", "use_case": "Public NTP time servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "I'm being cyberattacked by Tesla, Inc"}, {"id": 741754784, "item_id": 46359674, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46359674", "by": "loph", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "IMHO, most applications should use pool.ntp.org", "excerpt": "Only Boulder servers lost sync. To say NIST was off is clickbait hyperbole. This page: https://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi shows that NIST has > 16 NTP servers on IPv4, of those, 5 are in Boulder and were affected by the power failure. The rest were fine. However, most entities should not be using these top-level servers anyway, so this should have been a problem for exactly nobody. IMHO, most applications should ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "NIST was 5 \u03bcs off UTC after last week's power cut"}, {"id": 741714785, "item_id": 46357174, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46357174", "by": "evanriley", "date": "2025-12-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "or just use ntppool https://www.ntppool.org/en/", "excerpt": "> Gah, just when you think you can trust time.nist.gov You still can... If you're that considered about 5 microseconds: Build your own Stratum 1 time server https://github.com/geerlingguy/time-pi or just use ntppool https://www.ntppool.org/en/", "context": "", "use_case": "Public NTP time servers", "switched_from": "", "story": "NIST was 5 \u03bcs off UTC after last week's power cut"}, {"id": 734394720, "item_id": 45899670, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45899670", "by": "Bender", "date": "2025-11-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rather than money one can donate NTP servers to the pool.", "excerpt": "Rather than money one can donate NTP servers to the pool. [1] It can be a fun learning exercise in setting up a stable stratum-2 time server. One can create graphs from the optional logs. Why bother? Many of the rabbit holes one could venture down in learning to set up a stable time server can also benefit application servers in terms of latency, responsiveness, learning how to get clients to share resources and so m", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Please donate to keep Network Time Protocol up \u2013 Goal 1k"}]}