'm trying to use the ntpdate command to update my systems local time.
I've run into a few problems: (Running SolydX-64 home edition - debian testing)

The first was the error message: socket was already in use ...
(Solved by disabling ntp service and then shutting it down.)

Next the command appeared to hang when issued from a command line.
(Solved by opening 123 tcp/udp port to incoming and outgoing traffic.)

Now the problem is this error message: no server suitable for synchronization found

My first attemp was:
ntpdate -u ntp.ubuntu.com
9 Feb 14:19:04 ntpdate[14674]: no server suitable for synchronization found

Second attempt: I thought perhaps I was being blocked from using the ubuntu server so I tried a local time server running on a smoothwall firewall. (The ntpdate command has run successfully in the past using a a smoothwall time server - different version.)

ntpdate 192.168.0.1
9 Feb 14:23:06 ntpdate[14945]: no server suitable for synchronization found

A third attempt: connect to public server using an absolute IP address with some parameters that appeared to solved the
problem for other folks.

ntpdate -u -b -t 4 -p 4 70.86.250.6
9 Feb 13:03:50 ntpdate[9457]: no server suitable for synchronization found

A different approach: use ntpdate-debian which using the confg file for ntp by default. (The thinking here was probably the default config file for ntp should be generic enough to work in most environments.)

If at first you don't succeed try try again ...
Unfortunately I can't think of any other approaches to solve the problem ...

Could someone please try these commands on their system / network and see if you receive the same error message:
no server suitable for synchronization found

Thank you in advance for any advice / suggestions offered to solve this problem.

Tom

Can you please post the result of this command:

1 members found this post helpful.

try to find a server from here: http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/

1 members found this post helpful.

@ yongitz

opus default # ntpdate -d 192.168.0.1
10 Feb 08:30:22 ntpdate[17075]: ntpdate 4.2.6p5@1.2349-o Mon May 20 14:24:36 UTC 2013 (1)
transmit(192.168.0.1)
receive(192.168.0.1)
transmit(192.168.0.1)
receive(192.168.0.1)
transmit(192.168.0.1)
receive(192.168.0.1)
transmit(192.168.0.1)
receive(192.168.0.1)
192.168.0.1: Server dropped: strata too high
server 192.168.0.1, port 123
stratum 16, precision -29, leap 11, trust 000
refid [192.168.0.1], delay 0.02605, dispersion 0.00082
transmitted 4, in filter 4
reference time: 00000000.00000000 Sun, Dec 31 1899 19:00:00.000
originate timestamp: d6a352f4.13b667ff Mon, Feb 10 2014 8:30:28.077
transmit timestamp: d6a352f4.239067f0 Mon, Feb 10 2014 8:30:28.138
filter delay: 0.02618 0.02605 0.02606 0.02606
0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000
filter offset: -0.06437 -0.06362 -0.06289 -0.06214
0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
delay 0.02605, dispersion 0.00082
offset -0.063627

Thank you yongitz: (Server dropped: strata too high) seems to be the problem ...
Seems odd that every server I chose has too high a strata. Would you by chance know how to change the configuration
of the (smoothwall) time server? I can always post on the smoothwall forum but it would be nice to solve the problem here at LQ.
Searching now for a how to ...

Tom

From what I know, You'll have to allow UDP traffic on source/destination port 123. I am not quite sure how to do it in smoothwall.

ntp.ubuntu.com works from my end.

Thank you to all you who replied to this thread. The smoothwall time server (192.168.0.1) has a problem
synchronizing with public time servers which explains the error message: (Server dropped: strata too high)
My difficulties with connecting to public time servers also seems to be related to the smoothwall firewall.
It doesn't recognize (authenticate) certain systems after they reboot.

It is not my intention to criticize the smoothwall project, I'm using a release candidate and problems are to be expected.
I believe it's a important initiative whose value will be appreciated by a wider audience as time goes by.

Tom