I simply try to set-up NTP to my system. Both server and clients will run on my computer which are linked together with local link. One of them will have the reference clock.

Both the server and Client are linux Ubuntu. I install ntp daemon to both sides. In clients, I enter the ip address of the server to /etc/ntp.conf. Everything works fine.

However, the setting of the time to correct time in client side takes too long time (around 17 minutes). Is it possible to gather correct time just at startup. I write some code that regularly calls "ntpdate " by system call and the problem is solved but there has to be something that allows me to decrease the poll time of the client to 1-2 minutes. There are some settings as maxpoll - minpoll in ntp.conf, but I couldn't manage to understand their function, because with the best configuration (minpoll 4? 16 seconds?) I also cannot see that client side corrects its time before 10 minutes.

In addition, in some cases my client is an embedded system (ARM - IGEP board) and it always opens with an irrelevant date (2-3 years ago). So the time that takes to correct the time should not depend on the time difference also.