Short for
Network Time Protocol, an Internet standard
protocol (built on top of
TCP/IP) that assures accurate synchronization to the millisecond of
computer clock times in a network of computers. Based on
UTC, NTP synchronizes
client workstation clocks to the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clocks in Washington, DC and Colorado Springs CO. Running as a continuous
background client program on a computer, NTP sends periodic time requests to
servers, obtaining server time stamps and using them to adjust the client’s clock.
The latest version of NTP is defined in RFC 1305.