Accurate time keeping on your server is vital for LibreTime performance. You can confirm that the date and time of your server are set correctly with the **date** command:
Although it is possible to set the date and time of the server manually, this is not recommended because the server clock can drift over time, compromising the accuracy of your broadcast schedule. If your LibreTime server is permanently connected to the Internet, you can synchronize your server to a time server with the **ntp**** program. If **ntp** is not yet installed, you can enter the following command on Debian or Ubuntu:
On Ubuntu GNU/Linux, the default time server is *ntp.ubuntu.com*, but there are many other time servers available on the public Internet, including the group of servers listed at <http://www.pool.ntp.org/> for each country. Using a variety of NTP servers located closely to your LibreTime server should produce the most accurate results. For example, for a server in the United Kingdom you could use the following list:
# You do need to talk to an NTP server or two (or three).
server ntp.ubuntu.com
server 0.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 1.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 2.uk.pool.ntp.org
server 3.uk.pool.ntp.org
Enter the server names you require, press **Ctrl+O** to write out the */etc/ntp.conf* file, then **Ctrl+X** to exit **nano**. Restart the **ntp** service with:
sudo invoke-rc.d ntp restart
The server should respond:
* Stopping NTP server ntpd [ OK ]
* Starting NTP server ntpd [ OK ]
Then use the **ntpq -p** command to confirm that **ntp** is working. This command should produce output similar to the following:
ntpq -p
remote refid st t when poll reach delay offset jitter
The data centre which hosts your LibreTime server could be located anywhere in the world. Some servers are set to *Coordinated Universal Time* or UTC (similar to *Greenwich Mean Time* or GMT), regardless of their location. LibreTime uses UTC time in its database for scheduling purposes, independent of the server time zone.
If the server time zone is not appropriate for integration with your station's other systems, on a Debian or Ubuntu server you can reconfigure the **tzdata** (time zone data) package with the command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
This command opens a menu in which you can select the continent that you require, by pressing the Enter key.
The next step is to select your nearest city, again by pressing the Enter key. The appropriate time zone is selected according to the information that you have entered.
