 11 Apr 2007, 2:26 PM UTC
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JohnGalt
Posts 223
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I hope someone at Microsoft bothers to read this, you have a serious issue that has cropped up recently:
I've been at over 100 computers in 15 different businesses in the last 2 weeks. Our software depends on the system time being relatively accurate. We've been seeing dates and times that are completely wrong on lots of computers (often set a day in the future, but the users swear that they haven't touched it and I believe them).
Of the 100 computers in 15 different businesses with 15 different IT staff and everything from a domain to just a workgroup EVERY SINGLE COMPUTER CANNOT SYNCHRONIZE IT'S TIME WITH time.windows.com.
Yes, that's right, the ALL fail. You have to reset the w32time service from scratch (you can't just change to a different time server, that will fail too) and then you have to use a different time service other than time.windows.com because it still won't work. If you change to time.nist.gov everything works after that.
Either there is a massive virus going around that is doing this for some reason, or some update from MS screwed it up.
Windows XP, 2003 and Vista are ALL affected.
A complete reinstall from scratch also fails to work and requires these steps too, so we know it isn't a virus.
All of our internal office computers are all exhibiting this behaviour too, and they've all been completely scaned for spyware, and viruses and they are prestine.
I've written a script to fix this for now that all of our clients are running on their machines, but this is very not good.
It looks like it started to happen around the time that day light savings in EDT kicked in, so I suspect that it's a bug in the day light savings time patch that was released.
Please fix.
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14 Apr 2007, 7:53 PM UTC
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Pete
Posts 1
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There appears to be a problem with the time.windows.com time server - I see the error message "The time sample was rejected because: The peer's stratum is less than the host's stratum." Using the time.nist.gov server works fine. There is more information on this at http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/161461.html .
Oakland old timer
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15 Apr 2007, 4:23 PM UTC
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JohnGalt
Posts 223
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It's more than just that. Even switching to one of the other time servers won't work. You have to completely reset the w32time service and point it to one of the other ones and then the others work, but time.windows.com doesn't work no matter what you do...
Nasty stuff, especially for web services and encryption that relies on the time being relatively accurate....
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17 Apr 2007, 5:28 AM UTC
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ricardo.lopez
Posts 1
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Well, for what it's worth, I have Vista Business x86 and you are right, I noticed that the time in my PC was way off. I switched to time.nist.gov and it worked fine. No need to restart any services. Hope this helps.
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17 Apr 2007, 12:59 PM UTC
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JohnGalt
Posts 223
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...looks like only Windows XP machines have to have the service reset after some more experimentation, still very bad.
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19 Apr 2007, 8:36 PM UTC
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Mark_Hastings
Posts 1
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Hi
I have only been able to sychronise once since the change to British Summer Time on 25 March (I am in UK)
I have received errors with both time.indows.com and time.nist.gov. I get two different errors:
"an error occurred while Windows was synchronising with.... ", and
"The time sample was rejected because: The peer's stratum is less than the host's stratum" occurred today!
I have just started using a wireless modem, but I dont expect this to affect it?
I have since downloaded a time synchronizer by softnik but recently the time.nist.gov failed to connect, (although it accepts an can update the time with time.nrc.ca and clock.psu.ed (wherever they are?)
Please can anyone advise how to reset w32time?
Thanks
Mark
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19 Apr 2007, 8:37 PM UTC
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tobyb121
Posts 3
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I am using vista ultimate and xp (dual boot) and neither can synchronize with any of the default time servers, i have been forced to search for alternative servers to synchronize with, even if I resart the service it doesn't work!
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19 Apr 2007, 11:47 PM UTC
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JohnGalt
Posts 223
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Toby, run this:
net stop w32time
w32tm /unregister [ignore error message]
w32tm /unregister [enter a second time]
w32tm /register
reg add hklm\system\currentcontrolset\services\w32time\parameters\ /v NtpServer /t reg_sz /d time.nist.gov /f
net start w32time
You can put that in a batch file if you want.
It should reset it. Then restart your computer and it should sync with time.nist.gov properly.... at least it has here about 80% of the time..
MS you really really really need to fix this!
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20 Apr 2007, 6:42 AM UTC
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MJJL
Posts 4
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No Luck! After running the commands and restarting.
I've concluded that the default time servers in XP - time.nist.gov and time.windows.com, are having problems with connections. I did a TraceRT on time.windows.com and it kept timing out. I also did a TraceRT on time.nist.gov and it got through sometimes but it did hang a couple of times on the route.
Here are some that are working as of 04/20/2007:
Time Servers in USA:
JUST COPY AND PASTE ONE IN THE (SERVER: BOX FIELD) UNDER THE INTERNET TIME TAB. Or you can hack the registry and add a bunch to a peers list.
(Level One Servers): tick.usno.navy.mil; tock.usno.navy.mil; bitsy.mit.edu; clock.isc.org
(Level Two Servers): ntp1.kansas.net; rolex.peachnet.edu; timex.peachnet.edu; ntp-1.vt.edu; ntp-2.vt.edu
Here is the MS webpage info, not all servers listed are configured right to accept all types of internet traffic requests, but their are quite a few that work just fine. Probably the safest to use a Level One as I would expect them to be online 99.99%.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307897
Also, if you would like to change the default update interval (once a week is the default in XP) here is a small little 48KB utility that runs from anywhere. This program is a little GUI that works great, just reboot to update the new interval settings.
Change Internet Time Sync Interval v1.2
Copyright 2002-2004 - Doug Knox
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_inet_time.htm
I agree MS should have caught on to this as it has been sporadic problem for months. Especially when backups, syncing of files and any critical information is involved. I am not sure why a domain running Active Directory would not sync up the time on the domain.
How to synchronize the time on a member computer in an Active Directory domain
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Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. |
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Type w32tm /resync, and then press ENTER. |
*Unless the Directory Server is having the same Time Sync problem when connecting to its default Internet time server. Could very well be the same problem as the Workgroups or stand-a-lone machines are having.
The Event Logs can also be set up to give email, etc. notifications when this error occurs, which is probably a good idea for time critical functions, some OS's require installing an add-on for this.
I found the simplest solution is to use a Level One Time Server and to change the interval to a few times a day to keep critical important services being able to run on their precisely scheduled times.
Hope some of the above is helpful.
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20 Apr 2007, 2:49 PM UTC
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JohnGalt
Posts 223
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The problem with all of this is that the average user doesn't have a clue, and probably 90% of Windows 2003 servers that I've seen do not have any time synchronization setup for themselves at all anyhow, so it's left up to the client computers.
End result is a royal mess.
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26 Apr 2007, 7:36 AM UTC
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nepajim
Posts 2
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The same here. I noticed this the last week in March. One by one each PC started having problems synchronizing with the time servers. I have a total of 4 PC's on a wireless network, at the house. Two of them are running OS XP Pro( these update the time daily) and the other two are running OS Home( these update the time every 7 days). All 4 were affected. I didn't see anything on this issue, until I ran across this forum. MS is keeping it hush. I was going to e-mail their support, but notice that they are charging now, $59 a e-mail, on certain issues.
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30 Apr 2007, 6:13 PM UTC
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fraktol
Posts 2
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Something you wrote in this post nagged at my attention...
"not all servers listed are configured right to accept all types of internet traffic requests"
I have been having this problem as well, and after I read that sentence I have begun to suspect my firewall/antivirus software maybe partially responsible. If it's not passing the correct traffic on the correct port because of security concerns, then windows would not be able to communicate with the time servers.
Can someone who's smarter than I check on this possibility?
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30 Apr 2007, 6:18 PM UTC
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fraktol
Posts 2
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Something you wrote nagged at my attention...
"not all servers listed are configured right to accept all types of internet traffic requests"
I have been having the same problem, and after reading the above statement I've begun to suspect that my firewall/anitvirus software may be the culprit. If it's blocking certain types of traffic for security purposes, it may be preventing Windows from communicating with the online time servers.
Can someone who's smarter than I check into this?
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01 May 2007, 1:35 PM UTC
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tomack
Posts 27
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Your best bet is to have a DC that syncs your entire domain instead of configuring systems individually.
216734
Note that w32tm.exe replaces net time commands in 2003+ (though net time can still be used)
for options w32tm /?
time servers listed are widely used and subject to internet traffic congestion.
consider:
time.mit.edu
tick.usno.navy.mil
tock.usno.navy.mil
subitaneous.cpsc.ucalgary.ca (countries each have own time source)
Your ISP should also have a reliable time source.
If there is a network problem (DNS esp) w32tm will find it - getting w32tm to work will also solve other issues you're having with your network
note there are also hotfixes for the change in Daylight Savings Time - these must be installed on all machines (regardless of WU)
931836
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01 May 2007, 4:54 PM UTC
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JohnGalt
Posts 223
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tomack
the point is htat the day light savings time hotfix breaks the windows time synchronization for all computers that are not in a domain (I haven't tried those that have it setup in a domain correctly).
This means that all Windows XP Home/Media computers are no longer being synced. (i.e. most small business < 10 users)
It also means that all machines that are not setup to use the domain to sync their time (most because the default doesn't sync it correctly) won't work.
This is all directly related to the hotfix and issues with the DST change. MS busted it all and it needs to be fixed. I think we're all aware that a properly configured domain will have it's own time server configured and have the DC manually setup (why there isn't a tab under the time to do this I don't know) to sync with an external source. That's not the issue. The issue is all other cases are broken and time.windows.com is completely busted and useless right now which causes problems with all DCs that are using time.windows.com to sync their time in the first place.
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TechNet Forums » Windows Vista IT Pro » Windows Vista Setup » FYI To Microsoft: Windows Time Synchronization Completely Broken (Vista, 2003, XP are all broken)
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