discard (port 9) service

[eukreign]

I just got my new server :-) It's awesome!

But as I was configuring some of the services (and shutting down some I didn't need) I realized I had a few questions about the purpose and rationale for having them installed on a base system.

My first question is about the 'discard' service which runs on port 9. It says in RFC 863 that 'A discard service simply throws away any data it receives.' I can't think of anything I would use this for. Is there any reason I have to let this service run? How can i turn it off?

My second question is about ntp and ntpdate. I understand that ntp is the server counter part of ntpdate. I can see how ntpdate is useful because I would like to keep my servers clock up to date, but I'm not sure what the ntp server is for? I have shut it down, is this okay?

That's all for now :-)

- Lex

[QT]

The discard service is mostly for network testing .. think of it /dev/null for the network. It normally runs from inetd or xinetd. The ntpdate service runs at boot time to sync your system clock to an ntp server. Once this is done, ntpd takes over and keeps your clock in sync while the system is running.