I feel like I had read on this site that it was preferred for people to use the global pool.ntp.org and not a subdomain, in the interests of improving matters for country code sub zones that had few servers.
It’s a shame if doing so can result in four IP addresses being returned that are all very similar and often not working.
Perhaps the pool DNS server could try to return addresses from at least, say, three different autonomous systems (ASNs), and if that is not possible (due to lack of available diverse IPs) then return some from further afield geographically?
It is very easy to get the ASN from a given IP address. It would not be desirable for all or a majority of returned IPs to be from the same ASN as the risk then of getting all servers that are unreachable from the client due to some intermediary network failure is then so much higher.
Again it has to be said that putting IPv6 on all pools would help too and I am with the group that does not understand what’s taking so long on that.
Yes, at least the English language zone pages still state that “[i]n most cases it’s best to use pool.ntp.org to find an NTP server”. Though they also state for zones with a number of servers below a certain static absolute number (i.e., not in relation to the number of potential clients from that zone if I remember correctly) that the continent zone is recommended to be used rather than the country zone, e.g., “[t]here are not enough servers in this zone, so we recommend you use the Asia zone”.
Not sure whether the pool implementation was changed after the text about the global zones being best in most cases was crafted, or whether the discrepancy always existed and only became apparent recently. Or maybe the phrasing was originally intended to simply convey that the user should not have to fiddle with country zones as the pool would try to figure out what is best for a client.
Something similar applies in this case. Ask is aware of the issues, and has previously shared some thoughts on how to address them in various threads. However, at least I haven’t seen any recent indications in the public forum as to where he is at with those intended changes, not sure if anyone else knows what the latest state of affairs is.