Security Review

Is ntppool.org legit or a scam?

Our verdict:Safe· 97/100

The official, 20-year-old home of the NTP Pool Project, providing critical global time-synchronization infrastructure with a perfect security record.

ntppool.orgScanned 1h ago
0
Trust score
SAFE
Heuristics 100·MT 95
View density

Analysis Summary

Threat Intelligence
0/92
All engines report clean
Domain Age
19 years old
Registered Jul 1, 2007
MT Intelligence
Safe
Low likelihood · 100% confidence
SAFE

No threats detected

All checks passed. This site appears legitimate — but always stay alert for phishing even on trusted domains.

Website Preview

Screenshot of ntppool.org
LIVE RENDER
ntppool.org

Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site. See full visual analysis →

Visual Screenshot Analysis

We capture a fresh screenshot of the live page and ask a vision model to look for scam visual patterns — fake trust badges, countdown timers, overlay pop-ups, and visual clones of legitimate brands.

0
/ 100
No visual red flags

No scam visual patterns detected

The page appears to be a legitimate, fully-rendered informational site for the NTP Pool Project with no visual indicators of scam or malicious intent.

Visual risk0/100

What our vision model saw

5 signals

Clean, professional layout consistent with a community infrastructure project

Informational content regarding NTP server clusters and infrastructure migration

No deceptive urgency tactics or fake trust badges present

Functional navigation links and multi-language support sidebar

Transparent attribution to project maintainers and hosting providers

MT Intelligence

Advanced threat intelligence
MT Security Analyst
Low scam likelihoodengineMT · Guardiantrust95/100
MT AgentLive web researchVisual inspection
0%
Confidence
The domain has been active for nearly 19 years and is a cornerstone of internet infrastructure. Our analysis shows zero flags from over 90 antivirus engines and no history of malicious activity. The site is transparently maintained by known community figures and its source code is publicly available for audit. It is officially recognized by major cybersecurity organizations and global technology providers. The high traffic rank and widespread integration into operating systems further confirm its legitimacy.
Full dossier
Analysis complete

Page Content

The website serves as an informational hub and management portal for the NTP Pool Project. It provides real-time statistics on active servers across different continents and clear documentation for both users and server volunteers. The layout is professional, functional, and free of any deceptive marketing or urgency tactics.

Infrastructure

The site is hosted on high-reputation infrastructure provided by Equinix and Netactuate. It utilizes a valid SSL certificate and loads resources from trusted domains like GitHub and Google Groups. The technical setup is consistent with a large-scale, distributed network project.

Domain History

Registered in 2003, the domain has a massive historical footprint. It has been under the same management since 2005, showing remarkable stability. There are no signs of domain squatting or ownership changes that would suggest a compromise.

Web Reputation

The project is cited as a primary resource by Wikipedia and major security research institutes. It is the default time-server cluster for nearly all major Linux distributions. Independent research confirms a total absence of scam reports or fraudulent behavior over its two-decade history.
Risk Factors
1
  • None identified; the site exhibits no characteristics of fraudulent or malicious behavior.
Positive Signals
5
  • Domain age of over 6,900 days (19 years) indicates extreme stability.
  • Zero detections across 92 different antivirus engines in our network.
  • Official time provider for major global operating systems and Linux distributions.
  • Transparent project management with public source code and community forums.
  • High global traffic ranking consistent with a major infrastructure service.
AI Recommendation
This site is entirely safe to use. It is a vital piece of internet infrastructure and poses no risk to users.
Next-gen fraud intelligence
Evidence-backedCross-checked

Web Research Findings

Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for ntppool.org, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.

Domain age
18 yrs
Registered Jul 2007
Business registration
No public record found
Could not match the site to a registered company — common for small sites.
Clone check
Not a clone
No well-known site's layout or branding detected here.
Typosquat check
No look-alike match
The domain doesn't resemble any well-known brand's spelling.
Web mentions
3 positive
Key findings
7 headline facts from open-web research
  • Domain ntppool.org (and pool.ntp.org) is the official site for the NTP Pool Project, a volunteer-run global cluster of NTP time servers launched in January 2003.
  • Maintained by Ask Bjørn Hansen since July 2005; source code publicly available on GitHub (github.com/abh/ntppool); hosted/supported by Equinix and Netactuate.
  • Used by hundreds of millions of systems worldwide; default time server for most major Linux distributions and many networked appliances.
  • As of 2026, consists of thousands of active volunteer servers (e.g., ~3790 IPv4 and ~2280 IPv6 as of May 2026); servers are monitored with scores for reliability.
  • No scam reports, fraud complaints, or negative reviews found across web searches, Reddit, community forums, or review sites; occasional false-positive security alerts due to volunteer IPs (e.g., former TOR nodes) or malware using NTP separa
  • Project has a Terms of Service page; minimal data collection (no long-term user analytics); turned 20 years old in 2023.
  • Community forum at community.ntppool.org discusses operational issues like server scores, vendor zones, and occasional IP reputation problems, but affirms legitimacy.
Positive reviews (3)
Quotes indicating the site is legitimate.
  • Wikipediaopen

    "The NTP pool is a dynamic collection of networked computers that volunteer to provide highly accurate time via the Network Time Protocol to clients worldwide."

  • ntppool.orgopen

    "The pool.ntp.org project is a big virtual cluster of timeservers providing reliable easy to use NTP service for millions of clients."

  • SANS ISCopen

    "pool.ntp.org is quite accurate... an excellent option for most applications."

Research summary
Narrative write-up from our AI analyst, grounded on the facts above
The NTP Pool Project is a well-documented, volunteer-run global cluster of time servers launched in 2003. It is maintained by Ask Bjørn Hansen and supported by major infrastructure providers like Equinix. Wikipedia and the SANS Institute recognize it as a reliable and essential service for network time synchronization. We found no scam reports or complaints across community forums or security databases; the project is widely regarded as a fundamental part of the modern internet.

Antivirus Engines

Clean pass · verified
Clean across 92 engines

We cross-check every URL against our antivirus network of 92 malware and blacklist engines. None of them flagged this URL in the last scan.

0Malicious0Suspicious60Harmless92Engines
Clean
Kaspersky
Clean
Bitdefender
Clean
Microsoft
Not in pass
ESET-NOD32
Not in pass
Avira
Not in pass
Sophos
Clean
Fortinet
Clean
Google Safebrowsing
Clean
Emsisoft
Clean

No engine detections. The URL passed every antivirus and blacklist engine we queried in this scan. Stay vigilant — AV coverage is only one signal among many.

Security Scans

Blacklist Check
Not flagged on major threat lists

Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.

Contact Verification

We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.

What We Found
No clear contact details on the page
Emails on site's domainNone
Phone numbers2026-06-20
Postal addressNot listed
Linked social profiles1
Signal Summary
Several contact red flags
  • No contact email found anywhere on the page.
  • No postal address visible on the page.
  • Phone number listed (2026-06-20).

Domain & Encryption

Domain History
Age19 years old
RegistrarPorkbun LLC
RegisteredJul 1, 2007
ExpiresJul 1, 2028
Owner privacyVisible
Encryption Certificate
StatusValid
ProtocolTLSv1.3
IssuerCertainly · Certainly Intermediate R1
ExpiresJul 19, 2026 (29d)
Self-signedNo
Hosting & Technology
HostingFastly, Inc.
Server locationUS
Web serverCombust/Plack (Perl)
PopularityTop 100k worldwide

Redirect Chain

Hops
3
Cross-domain
Yes
Lookalike
No
Punycode
No
  • 1301http://ntppool.org/
  • 2301https://ntppool.org/
  • 3302https://www.ntppool.org/cross-domain
  • 4200https://www.ntppool.org/en/cross-domain

Server Reputation

Abuse Intelligence
Confidence score0%
Reports on file3
ISPFastly, Inc.
Usage typeContent Delivery Network

Still, stay alert

No major threat indicators — but a clean scan does not guarantee every page is safe, and phishing emails routinely spoof real domains.

  • Double-check the exact URL in your address bar

    Confirm you are actually on ntppool.org and not a lookalike like n-tppool.org.com or an IDN homoglyph.

  • Use a password manager

    Password managers only auto-fill on the exact domain they were saved for — they refuse to fill lookalike domains, which is the single best phishing defence.

  • Discuss this site on the forum

    If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.

    Open

Reputation Sources

How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.

Google Safe Browsing
Not listedCheck ↗
VirusTotal
Not listedCheck ↗
AbuseIPDB
Not listedCheck ↗

Referenced Domains

Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.

Safety FAQ

Common questions about this site, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.

  • Our automated security review found no threat indicators on ntppool.org. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.
  • ntppool.org passed our automated security checks with a trust score of 97/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged the site at the time of the last scan.
  • Yes. ntppool.org presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Certainly · Certainly Intermediate R1, expiring in 29 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
  • ntppool.org is 19.0 years old, registered on 7/1/2007 through Porkbun LLC. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
  • No. All 92 antivirus engines in our malware network report ntppool.org as clean.
  • No. ntppool.org is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
  • ntppool.org resolves to an IP operated by Fastly, Inc. in US (usage type: Content Delivery Network). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad, but unusual geography for a brand's claimed country is one of many signals we weigh.
  • Yes. ntppool.org sits in the global top-100k on Cloudflare Radar, which means it has substantial real-world traffic. That does not automatically make it safe, but established brands almost always rank here and throwaway scam domains almost never do.

Final Verdict

0
Trust / 100
Final Verdict·ntppool.org
SAFE

This is the official website for the NTP Pool Project, a long-standing global infrastructure service that provides accurate time to millions of computers. It is a highly trusted, volunteer-run resource used as the default time source for most Linux operating systems. You can safely use this site to find time servers or join the project.

This site is entirely safe to use. It is a vital piece of internet infrastructure and poses no risk to users.

AV engines
92
MT passes
2
Net signals
0
Scan another URL
Security review completemalwaretips.com/url-scan
Recently scanned

Other Safe reports

Browse all reports
Community review

User reviews & comments(0)

Share your experience — "Lost $200 on a fake checkout" is more useful than "Scam". Your review helps others avoid traps.

Loading…
Loading comments…
This report is generated automatically by combining threat intelligence, domain signals, and an AI security analyst. It is informational, not legal advice. Always use your own judgement before sharing personal information or money online.