Setting up ntpd on FreeBSD (5.4)

[Sean Murphy]

Ensure you due ntpdate before you run ntpd.
This can be done just once from the command line and ntpd cannot be running.

ntpdate ntp2.sf-bay.org

then add the following to /etc/rc.conf
ntpd_enable="YES"
ntpd_flags="-c /etc/ntp.conf -p /var/run/ntpd.pid"

between the lines is a example of ntp.conf in /etc
====
#List of servers to pull time from
server ntp2.sf-bay.org
server clock.isc.org
server clock.via.net
server ntp.ucsd.edu

#This is created automaticaly you do not have to touch it
#However it might take hours for it to be created
driftfile /var/db/ntp.drift

#This Line restricts which hosts are allowed to pull from your box
restrict 172.30.0.0 mask 255.255.0.0 notrust nomodify notrap

===

restart your box

check ntp using ntpdc

$ ntpdc -s
     remote           local      st poll reach  delay   offset    disp
=======================================================================
.bigben.ucsd.edu 198.182.157.33   2 1024  377 0.01555  0.038196 0.01865
*clock.via.net   198.182.157.33   1 1024  377 0.02483  0.038705 0.01482
.clock.isc.org   198.182.157.33   2 1024  377 0.02481  0.040574 0.01482
 zorac.sf-bay.or 198.182.157.33   2 1024  377 0.01485  0.044078 0.01865