AUP

Acceptable use policy

These servers are not public and should only be used in compliance with the following minimal rules, which are in place to prevent the overload of these servers.

Who may use them

These servers are only intended for use by system administrators configuring NTP clients on kit that is normally based in NZ or the Pacific Islands.

They must not be used by equipment manufacturers or systems integrators selling kit preconfigured to use these servers.

Default poll intervals

The default poll intervals set by the operating system must not be overridden to increase the frequency of polling. What we are worried about, in case you had not guessed, is someone configuring a million machines to use these timeservers with a poll interval of 60 seconds. That would kill them pretty effectively.

For an explanation of why the default poll intervals are so important please see NTP Server Load.

Contacting us

Provided you are following these rules you are free to use these servers without contacting us. Please contact us if you want to use these timeservers differently from these rules or you think we are being too restrictive.

Infrastructure clients

We define infrastructure clients as:

  • Stratum 2 NTP servers.
  • Kit normally found in a server room, such as servers, enterprise routers (not consumer products), SANs etc.

These clients may be configured to use the following host names:

  • p1.ntp.net.nz
  • p2.ntp.net.nz
  • p3.ntp.net.nz
  • p4.ntp.net.nz

Desktop clients

We define desktop clients as:

  • Desktops and laptops
  • Your own home router

These clients may be configure to use the following host names:

  • s1.ntp.net.nz
  • s2.ntp.net.nz
  • s3.ntp.net.nz
  • s4.ntp.net.nz

All other clients

You may not configure any of the following clients to access these timeservers:

  • Consumer devices such as printers, cameras, mobile phones, etc.

Please note

  1. We make no guarantee as to the accuracy or availability of these NTP servers.
  2. We may choose at any time to restrict access to NZ and Pacific Islands networks or rate limit or block any networks or hosts.