Alakazam
12-24-2001, 12:24 AM
An Internet Time utility built into Windows XP Home and Professional editions that is supposed to ensure correct system time instead suffers from intermittent bouts of tardiness, PC World has learned. Microsoft intends the utility to synchronize your PC's internal clock via the Internet with the atomic clock maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The atomic clock is considered the Holy Grail of timekeeping. It is referenced daily by millions, from the military to stock market traders and researchers, by means other than Microsoft's Internet Time utility.
Microsoft is one of many companies and organizations that host what are known as "time servers" on the Internet. Each of these servers mirrors the time (to the second) that NIST hosts on its servers. Now that Microsoft has corrected its time server, the time-sensitive can manually update a PC or modify the utility's settings to force Windows XP to check the alternate NIST server for the correct time. Note that Windows XP does not provide the utilities to PCs on a network domain; such PCs often have login scripts that synchronize the PCs' time with the network server's clock.
Under the default setting, Microsoft lists its own time.windows.com server. However, you can direct Windows XP to sync directly with the NIST server, or another online authority. A list of available servers is on the Network Time Protocol (http://www.ntp.org) home page.
To adjust the utility in any version of Windows XP, right-click the time display on the taskbar, choose Adjust Date/Time, click the Internet Time tab, and check Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server. If you want to sync directly with NIST, choose the alternate server time.nist.gov from a drop-down list. Then click Update Now, and Windows will synchronize your PC's clock. Or you can enter one of the other available servers.
If left unattended, Windows XP will synchronize with the time server automatically on a weekly basis. The default update setting is seven days.
If you want it quicker it's a simple registry hack. Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001ServicesW32TimeTimeProvidersNtpClientS pecialPollInterval
The number you see is seven days in seconds. Simply calculate your new interval (86400 is 1 day) and alter the value. Reboot & your clock will update as often as you want.
Hope this is of some use to someone.
Microsoft is one of many companies and organizations that host what are known as "time servers" on the Internet. Each of these servers mirrors the time (to the second) that NIST hosts on its servers. Now that Microsoft has corrected its time server, the time-sensitive can manually update a PC or modify the utility's settings to force Windows XP to check the alternate NIST server for the correct time. Note that Windows XP does not provide the utilities to PCs on a network domain; such PCs often have login scripts that synchronize the PCs' time with the network server's clock.
Under the default setting, Microsoft lists its own time.windows.com server. However, you can direct Windows XP to sync directly with the NIST server, or another online authority. A list of available servers is on the Network Time Protocol (http://www.ntp.org) home page.
To adjust the utility in any version of Windows XP, right-click the time display on the taskbar, choose Adjust Date/Time, click the Internet Time tab, and check Automatically synchronize with an Internet time server. If you want to sync directly with NIST, choose the alternate server time.nist.gov from a drop-down list. Then click Update Now, and Windows will synchronize your PC's clock. Or you can enter one of the other available servers.
If left unattended, Windows XP will synchronize with the time server automatically on a weekly basis. The default update setting is seven days.
If you want it quicker it's a simple registry hack. Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001ServicesW32TimeTimeProvidersNtpClientS pecialPollInterval
The number you see is seven days in seconds. Simply calculate your new interval (86400 is 1 day) and alter the value. Reboot & your clock will update as often as you want.
Hope this is of some use to someone.