Network Time Protocol (NTP)

Network Time Protocol (NTP)

Network Time Protocol (NTP), originally developed by Professor David Mills at the University of Delaware, is used to synchronize (or set) computer clocks to some standard time source, which is
usually a nuclear clock. This protocol (along with synchronization utilities) keeps all computers on a network set to the same time. Time synchronization is important because many transactions
are time and date stamped (in a database, for example). If the time on a server is out of synchronization with the time on two different computers, even by just a few seconds, the server will get confused. For example, one computer can seemingly enter a transaction, but the server will indicate that it occurred before it actually did. Because this time problem will crash the database server, it is important that these servers (and workstations) use NTP.