Network Time Protocol

Imagine if you and your friends wanted to play a game together but you weren't all in the same place. How would you know when to start the game and when to make your moves? One way is to have someone keep track of the time and tell everyone when to start and stop. This is kind of like what network time protocol (NTP) does for computers on a network.

NTP is like a timer that helps computers all over the world stay in sync with each other. It's really important because computers need to have the correct time to do things like send emails, schedule appointments, and make sure their security features work properly.

So how does NTP work? Well, there are special computers called NTP servers that keep really accurate time. These servers are connected to the internet and share their time with other computers on the network. When a computer needs to know the time, it asks an NTP server and the server tells it what time it is.

But how does the NTP server know what time it is? There are special clocks that keep time super accurately called atomic clocks. NTP servers use these atomic clocks to stay on time.

So, to sum up, NTP is like a timer that helps computers all over the world stay in sync with each other. It does this by using special computers called NTP servers that keep really accurate time with the help of atomic clocks.