WinXP's time sync question

[Rupp]

I have been getting messages in my event viewer stating XP can not update my time on my HS server. Anyone have any clues as to how to fix this other than loading a 3rd party time sync app?

[beach]

If time synchronization fails
When you click the Update Now button, your clock should be synchronized immediately. If it fails, it might be for one of the following reasons:

You are not connected to the Internet. Establish an Internet connection before you attempt to synchronize your clock.
Your personal or network firewall prevents clock synchronization. Most corporate and organizational firewalls will block time synchronization, as do some personal firewalls. Home users should read the firewall documentation for information about unblocking network time protocol (NTP). You should be able to synchronize your clock if you switch to Windows Firewall.
The Internet time server is too busy or is temporarily unavailable. If this is the case, try synchronizing your clock later, or update it manually by double-clicking the clock on the taskbar. You can also try using a different time server.
The time shown on your computer is too different from the current time on the Internet time server. Internet time servers might not synchronize your clock if your computer's time is off by more than 15 hours. To synchronize the time properly, ensure that the date and time settings are set close to your current time in the Date and Time Properties in Control Panel.

[Rupp]

Well I'll be. I didn't know there was an update button. I also switched time servers and it was much faster than the default. Is there any way to have the auto sync update more often than the weekly default.

[johnwpb]

Rupp,

I felt the same way, the LAST thing I needed was another program just to sync the clock. I found a script in the script library some time ago, and havent had a problem since. I run an event to syncronize the clock each day at 4 in the morning.

Time Sync Script

[Stevech]

I don't think you can get Microsoft's time synch to run more frequently. There are many available and more flexible freeware/shareware programs for this function.

[Rupp]

Actually here's an app that allows you to change the interval.

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_inet_time.htm

[Stevech]

Oh my. The dougknox.com utility is one of those EXEs you download - and if you're like me, don't want to take the risk of it being virus-infected, though not by the author's intent.

[Chakara]

I used to use several 3rd party time sync programs, but once XP came out my thought was why add more complexity to my system. The Windows Time Service, while not "feature rich" does somehow manage to keep my time accurate.

Keeping time accurate was my only goal with the other programs.

[Rick Tinker]

From before XP came out, I used NISTIM32, which is published by NIST, the guys who keep the world standard time. It is a simple but effective program and has a command line/configuration setting for it to sync and exit when it is run. Thus, I just ported this over to the system when I moved to XP and kept right on using it. I have it sync every 6 or 12 hours (I forget) which is way overkill, but I also did want it more frequently than weekly. The bad thing about the XP sync is that it does not tell you if there is a problem. Thus, when Starband or Verizon (previous ISPs) were blocking some of the time servers, I never knew that XP was not getting its updates, but I new right away with NISTIM32 since it would stay up on the screen when it failed to synchronize.

I would not mind putting this in HomeSeer directly at some point, so if sombody finds some recent (e.g. VB.NET preferred) code to handle this, send it my way and at some point we'll add it to HomeSeer.

Just like with HomeSeer's sunrise/sunset calculation, make sure your PC's timezone is set properly - Windows defaults to Pacific time (Microsoft's timezone!)

[Rupp]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> The bad thing about the XP sync is that it does not tell you if there is a problem <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually it logs a message in the event viewer if it can not reach the time server. This is what drove me to fix it.

[Squintz]

If anyone is interested i have a VB.net source code class which can be used to create your own TimeSync clock using NTP TimeServers. I was going to make a plugin for homeseer with the class but got side tracked and will probably never finish the project so if anyone want the class in order to finish the project i would be more than happy to send it to them. I did not write the class but did make some changes to it to prevent it from displaying errors and warnings when i ran my program.

[GenevaDude]

I used the NISTtime utility. Before XP it was the best utility. In fact, it is more flexible than the XP version. Rick, thanks for reminding me. I need to set it up on my NT2K machine!

[jon00]

There is no need to download any program to change the update time interval so long as you are happy to change a registry setting.

To change the interval that Windows updates the time using the internet time servers navigate to:

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services \W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient
2. Select "SpecialPollInterval"
3. Change decimal value from 604800 to some other value in seconds. EX: 172800 (2 days)


Simple!

[Rupp]

jon00,
That's exactly what I did. The .exe I posted does this as well.

[Rick Tinker]

Squintz,

Send me the source! No promises as to when, but like I wrote earlier I would like to incorporate it into HS. If somebody beats me to the punch with a plug-in, no skin off my back either.