Internet Time tab... missing 2

[esmithbda]

We have a network of XP machines with Win2k3 servers. We are currently seeing a problem where all of the machines are successfully updating their time against some server - but we don't know what server (I am assuming time.microsoft.com, but not sure to be honest).

The problem is that time is 5 minutes slow compared to the atomic clock reading. So when we see 11:30, it is actually 11:35.

Going into any machine on the network in the Date & Time config panel, there is no "Internet Time" tab. I want to change what server that they update against, but without that tab, then I don't know how to change it.

Can anyone either tell me:
1) why we don't have that tab or how we can get it?
2) how to update what time server our servers/desktops use if we don't have that tab?

 

[SuperAmit]

are your PC's part of a domain? if so thats why the internet time tab is missing.

you can create a login script that forces all the PCs in your domain to use the time on the file server.

 

[esmithbda]

The file server also has the wrong time - is there a way to change the timeserver that it talks to?
This seems to have something, but I haven't had time to look over it to much:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307897

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;216734

 

[esmithbda]

Thanks bcastner - that link is great. Actually, a link off of that is what applies to us:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042

The time still isn't syncing, but at least I can track down what it is now.

 

[esmithbda]

Once I made sure that our firewall was letting NTP traffic through (UDP 123), and using these servers:
tick.mit.edu,0x1 timeserver.cs.umb.edu,0x1 ntp2.usno.navy.mil,0x1

Then the server would successfully update.

Now the XP clients aren't properly updating from that server, even though it is set as the local time server using the descriptions on these links we have here. Even after restarting the XP w32time service.

Perhaps it actually needs a reboot (the XP) so that it is aware of the new time server on the net?

 

[SuperAmit]

put this in your logon script
net time \\servername /set /y

then when you reboot the XP clients the they will get their time from the server. replace servername with your servers name.

 

[esmithbda]

I added that to the login script, but then just ran it from the command line as well on my machine - it immediately connected to the right machine and updated to the right time.

But then out of curosity I immediately tried "w32tm /resync" at the command line on my machine and it reverted back to where it was.

We have a Win2k3 server that I setup as the time server, now I am going to try to setup the BDC which is Win 2k - it appears that my machine wants to switch over to that one.

I don't care which it uses as long as it gets the right time.

 

[esmithbda]

I didn't want to cause any issues by having multiple "authoritative" time sources on the network of ours, so I first tried "net stop w32time && net start w32time" on the BDC and then "w32tm /resync" on the my XP box and now it finally seems to be getting the right time regardless of which server it talks to (if you look in the event log you can see which server it is getting the time data from).

Hopefully if someone else has this issue, this thread will help them out.