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Acceptable use policy of Public NTP services

Acceptable Use Policy of AMS-IX Public NTP Services

The purpose of this policy is to outline the rules, restrictions and responsibilities regarding the use of the Public NTP services provided by Amsterdam Internet Exchange B.V., here after AMS-IX. It sets the minimum acceptable standards meant to ensure available and safe Public NTP services, accessible for everyone.

This policy applies to all users, either public or private, commercial or non-profit organisations, legal or natural persons who access free of charge the Public NTP services provided by AMS-IX, regardless of their location, nationality, business domain.

The Public NTP services are network time protocol services aiming to deliver accurate time sychronisation across different systems, provided by AMS-IX free of charge.

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is an Internet protocol (RFC 5905) designed to synchronise the clocks of computers, servers, and network devices to within milliseconds of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). It uses UDP port 123 and a hierarchical "stratum" system to select accurate time sources, ensuring consistency in distributed systems.

The Public NTP service is provided to support standard, low-volume time synchronisation for personal, academic, non-profit, and commercial systems. The Service is designed for reasonable use and is not intended to support high-volume, mission-critical, or abusive traffic.

AMS-IX provides access to Public NTP services in good faith to enable users benefiting from accurate time syncronisation for their own private or business purposes, provided that such purposes do not conflict with this Acceptable Use Policy and the related security exigencies and do not infringe any national and/or international law. You may use the Service without redistributing, reselling or deploying and or otherwise exploiting them for financial or commercial benefits.

This policy promotes the responsible use of the AMS-IX’s Public NTP services, in accordance with the legal and security requirements, in order ensure a fair balance between individual interests regarding such use and the general interest related to safety, legality and respect of the rights of others. This policy does not prejudice the applicability of the legal requirements. The users must take reasonably precautions to use the services they are authorised to access responsibly, without jeopardising the security, availability and continuity of Public NTP service or the rights of the others.

Therefore, any users must be aware that the illegal or improper use of the AMS-IX’s Public NTP services, either intentionally or unintentionally trigger the full liability of the user and the obligation to cover all damages and indemnify any person affected directly or in connection with such use.

Any attempt to circumvent or override the rules set through this policy shall trigger disconnection and might entail legal action.

Conditions for use of Public NTP Services

You can use the AMS-IX’s Public NTP Services, in the conditions set below:

  • Your systems query the Service using standard NTP client software and configurations.
  • Query rates are reasonable and consistent with typical NTP polling intervals (no more frequently than once every 64 seconds per client).
  • You operate a limited number of clients and do not aggregate excessive traffic through a single source or network.
  • You use the Service only for lawful purposes and only in connection with legal activities.
  • Your use of Services does not abuse or infringe the rights of others (e.g., access, safety, IP rights).

Prohibited use

The following activities are not permitted:

  • Excessive or abusive query rates that degrade service quality for others.
  • Use of the Service as part of denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS) attacks, reflection or amplification attacks, scanning, probing, or other malicious activity.
  • Redistribution, proxying, or relaying of the Service to third parties without prior written permission.
  • Use of the Service for large-scale commercial deployments, data centres, critical infrastructure, large distribution of the public NTP signal or for any other similar set-up without a separate agreement.
  • Any activity that violates any applicable laws or regulations or information security standards.

Rate limiting and monitoring

We, AMS-IX, reserve the right to:

  • Monitor traffic patterns and usage levels to protect the stability and security of the Service.
  • Apply rate limits, filtering, or temporary or permanent blocking of IP addresses or networks that exceed reasonable use thresholds or violate this Policy.
  • Modify technical limits or operational practices at any time without prior notice.
  • The Service is provided on an “as-is” and “as-available” basis. We make no guarantees regarding availability, accuracy, latency, or suitability for any specific purpose.
  • You use the Public NTP services made available by AMS-IX at your own risk and responsibility, without a guarantee from our side on the achievement of the results you would expect. We are not responsible for any loss, direct or indirect damage including data loss, or any disruption resulting from the use of or reliance on the Service.

Violations of this Policy

The infringement of this Policy or of any applicable law, security standards or the infringement of the rights of others can result in AMS-IX taking the measures below:

  • Suspension or permanent blocking by AMS-IX of your access to the Service, regardless of whether such access is requested by you directly or indirectly, through third parties.
  • Notification to network operators and / or of the relevant authorities in cases of abuse, illegal activity or infringement of others’ rights.
  • We reserve the right to take any action necessary to protect the integrity and availability of the Service and the rights of other users.

Note: This Policy is version 1 (March 2026) and it might be amended in the future.

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