Problem Synchronizing Computer Time with Internet

[ComputerQuestio]

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the correct forum, but I'm having trouble synchronizing my computer's time with Internet time under Date and Time Properties->Internet Time. I went to Command Prompt and typed in "ping time.nist.gov" and it showed 0% packet loss and "ping time.windows.com" with 100% packet loss. However, when I try to synchronize the time with either of these websites with Date and Time Properties, it always says "An error occurred while Windows was synchronizing with time.nist.gov (or time.windows.com)". What can I do to fix this? This problem has been going on for a year and I would rather not manually put in the time when I update it, even though I rarely need to.

On "help" for Date and Time Properties, it said that if you're having trouble it may be because a firewall is blocking it. I don't know how I'd fix that with my particular firewall. I have Norton Internet Security 2007 (Suite). The only settings that I can think of that will allow me change the settings is "Program Control", where there's "allow", "block", "custom", etc for each program. I can't find one for "time synchronization". If the firewall is the problem, how'd I fix that if I have Norton Internet Security 2007?

[Ajmukon]

IT is a port that you have to open on your computer.

Check the port to see if it is closed and open it up using the Firewall program
since i do not use Norton, i do not know the exact menu it is under
IT IS NOT A PROGRAM, but a port on the computer that has to be opened


For me (Mcafee Security Center)
it is Secerity Center>Firewall>advanced>system services>check mark next to internet time protocol

probably very similar to yours.

[mjc]

Personally, I prefer using this (http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/ats.htm)...

All it does is request the time from one of the many time servers, usually one of the NIST servers, then syncs the clock to the 'net' time...

Why run this when Windows can do it?

Well, it doesn't require the 'time' port to opened...iot doesn't require another service to be running...

I don't let it run automatically, but manually run it once or twice a week.

[tyler]

I have the same problem.It doesn't matter which server you use.I think it is a problem with Microsoft,I found if you take the tick out of Adjust for daylight saving,in Internet Time. It works OK

[PrntRhd]

Tyler,
Which OS are you using? There was a Windows Update that MS pushed out last spring that was supposed to correct the date when DST kicked in but may not have worked for some users.

[tyler]

XP Home sp2.
It seems if I keep hitting the update button it will work eventually.
Please can you point me to the patch,I hate it when things don't work right.

[Variable]

Time update failures are normal, it is UDP and therefore a best effort. If it works at any time then it is not a firewall. The servers are very busy and they do not respond to every request.

[ComputerQuestio]

Yea I still can't get it to work. I completely uninstalled Norton Internet Security and made sure Windows firewall was disabled. I even tried MJC's AnalogX Atomic TimeSync, which looks like a better program, and it still doesn't work. It didn't work sometimes, but not other times. It worked none of the time with either program. I also tried from many different wireless connections from different places. I've tried driving around through various neighborhoods to see if I could get a connection there; still didn't work with those connections. I have my computer set to automatic updates and will go to microsoft's site once a month to install all optional updates. I wonder if there's something wrong with my OS or drivers?

[mjc]

In the AtomicTimeSync read-me (or help file...I can't remember which, right now) is a link to a list of time servers...or you can get a list a nist.gov. Try different servers until you come up with one that works consistently.

[Variable]

Something is blocking it. Assuming you havn't hosed something. Do you get any errors in Event Viewer?

[ComputerQuestio]

I just tried all the time servers that were located in my time zone that were listed on the website AnalogyX gave me. Still none of them worked.

I'm not very computer knowledgeable, that's why I came to this forum. How do you operate the event viewer? The one that I found is under administrative tools on the control panel.

What I tried with this is first manually setting the time 20 minutes ahead of the real time to give it a chance to update itself. I waited 10 minutes so that what I did manually and the actual update would be distinguishable in the event manager. Then I tried the "Date and Time Properties" "Update Now" with time.windows.com. It gave me the error message:
"An error occurred while Windows was synchronizing with time.windows.com. The peer is unreachable."

Then I went to Event Viewer. I only found entries for the time I did all this under Security. I got these two messages for when I had tried "Update Now":

first one:
"Source: Security
Category: System Event
Type: Success At...
Event ID: 520

Description:
The system time was changed.
Process ID: 552
Process Name: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Rundll32.exe
Primary User Name: Nick Ballard
Primary Domain: NICK
Primary Logon ID: (0x0,0x1D37A)
Client User Name: Nick Ballard
Client Domain: NICK
Client Logon ID: (0x0,0x1D37A)
Previous Time: 8:55:29 PM 10/12/2007
New Time: 8:55:29 PM 10/12/2007

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp."

The second message was the exact same. I thought it was weird how Event Viewer said "time was changed" while the Date and Time Properties gave me that error message and the time on my actual computer was never changed. When I tried to update Date and Time Properties through time.nist.gov, the error message was "An error occurred while Windows was synchronizing with time.nist.gov", and the event in Event Viewer was the same for when I tried time.windows.com, except the Process ID was 3676.

I tried AnalogX Atomic TimeSync and nothing appeared under the Event Viewer for either Application, Security, System, or Internet Explorer.

[Variable]

Make sure the date on your computer is correct, close any firewall except windows firewall, it should work fine with Windows firewall.
Copy this line to your clipboard by selecting the text and then hitting CTRL+C:

time-a.nist.gov

Open Data and Time Properties, click Internet Time,
Click the text twice inside the white box next to Server: this should select the server name, once it is selected hit CTRL+V and this will paste the time-a.nist.gov in the server box overwriting the default time server, Click Apply and then click Update Now. Wait for 20 seconds or until it works or fails and try again. Try at least 3 times waiting a small amount of time before updating.

If this fails it is likely latency (slowness) or a firewall. If you get an RPC error the Windows Time service is stopped.

Clicking Update sends a packet using the NTP (Network Time Protocol) over UDP port 123.

UDP is best effort and too much latency in the response time, like that caused by a slow wireless internet connection, could affect the time being updated.

Windows firewall is a statefull firewall, the basic difference between it and a third party firewall is that it does not block outgoing packets (like NTP) and since you initiated the connection, it remembers that a response is due back and will allow it in. Third party firewalls like Norton or whatever, block both ways, which may be good for some things but, there use is mostly limited to warning you constantly about things that are really not an issue, it makes them look like they are protecting you but they mostly cry wolf. I won't go off on a tangent about them and suffice to say, NTP should work with Windows firewall.


V