keeping accurate time

You'd need this only when you're not running ntpd.

• put the following script update_time in the directory /etc/cron.hourly
  #!/bin/sh
  /usr/sbin/ntpdate ntp1 > /dev/null
  
• chmod 755 /etc/cron.hourly/update_time
• in place of ntp1 put the name of a nearby time server