UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

I am a beginner with UNIX. When using the date command I notice that the time is fourteen minutes slow and I wanted to correct this. How do I do this?

I have also read in various forums that using the ntpdate function will synchronise with a time server. I tried typing the following into the command line on the server:

ntpdate pool.ntp.org

However I recieved an error stating that the server could not be found which I am assuming is because I do not have the default gateway setup on the machine.

How can I view and edit the various network settings in UNIX?

I have also read that it is possible to setup this ntpdate to automatically synchronise using something called cron. What is cron and how could I do this?

Thanks in advance, any feedback would be most appreciated.

Tom

1. UNIX commands differ by OS. We do not know what OS you're wanting to do this on.

2. You set the date with the 'date' command, see man date(1)
3. You can manually set the default gateway this way:
# route add default 192.168.1.1 <-- or whatever your default gateway IP is
You'll have to find the appropriate config file for your OS to set it permanently.

You should be able to view and change network settings with 'ifconfig', again,
man ifconfig(8)

4. ntpdate should work fine once you've set your default route. Yes, you can run
ntpdate via cron. I have one machine I have to do this on:

0 1 * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate -b ip.of.ntp.server