Can't sync to Internet Time, really weird error message

J

Jeff W

Hi - I upgraded to XP Home SP2 and have a great cable modem internet
connection. On WIN98SE I used D4 and AutoMachron to sync with the
timeserver all the time, so I know the firewall in my router isn't a
problem. Under XP. I can't sync time. I Do Not have the Windows
Firewall enabled, and I'm running Mcafee (though disabling mcafee didn't
help).

When I try to use time.nist.gov in the Internet Time Tab of Date and
Time Properties, I get 'an error occurred when Windows was
synchronizing with time.nst.gov'.

When I try time.windows.com I get the weird error "the time sample was
rejected because the peer's stratum is less than the host's stratum".

I checked the knowledge base but nothing jumped out.

Anyone know what's blocking time for me?

thanks!
/j
 
B

BigRedWingsFan

Jeff W said:
Hi - I upgraded to XP Home SP2 and have a great cable modem internet
connection. On WIN98SE I used D4 and AutoMachron to sync with the
timeserver all the time, so I know the firewall in my router isn't a
problem. Under XP. I can't sync time. I Do Not have the Windows
Firewall enabled, and I'm running Mcafee (though disabling mcafee didn't
help).

When I try to use time.nist.gov in the Internet Time Tab of Date and
Time Properties, I get 'an error occurred when Windows was
synchronizing with time.nst.gov'.

When I try time.windows.com I get the weird error "the time sample was
rejected because the peer's stratum is less than the host's stratum".

I checked the knowledge base but nothing jumped out.

Anyone know what's blocking time for me?
Click to expand...

Same thing happened to me tonight.

Marty
 
V

Vanguardx

Jeff W said:
Hi - I upgraded to XP Home SP2 and have a great cable modem internet
connection. On WIN98SE I used D4 and AutoMachron to sync with the
timeserver all the time, so I know the firewall in my router isn't a
problem. Under XP. I can't sync time. I Do Not have the Windows
Firewall enabled, and I'm running Mcafee (though disabling mcafee
didn't help).

When I try to use time.nist.gov in the Internet Time Tab of Date and
Time Properties, I get 'an error occurred when Windows was
synchronizing with time.nst.gov'.

When I try time.windows.com I get the weird error "the time sample was
rejected because the peer's stratum is less than the host's stratum".

I checked the knowledge base but nothing jumped out.

Anyone know what's blocking time for me?

thanks!
/j
Click to expand...

Pick a server that is logically closer to you. Picking a common or
national NTP server means it will be very, very busy (which means your
time polls will often fail).

http://www.google.com/search?q=+NTP++public+server

Add your state to the search to narrow the search. Often your state
university will have a public NTP server.
 
H

Husky

Just a guess [to coincide with the 7 day synch setting]. I've used the synch at
Gainesville FL. with automachron for hourly updates with my win98 dying battery
machine.
Other smtp's brought up errors.
reasons being:
1 not a true public server.
2 not authorized access this one here includes many different configurations.

I'm guessing the windows synch uses your isp to reply or go after the synch to
reply. Seems to me it'd be faster to just reply, than checking to see if that
specific ISP asked within the past hour or less.

Somehow other than some kid playing, I can't picture anyone having any desire
to keep pinging an ntp server to the point of flooding it.

ie: I synched at windows then set it in registry from 24 - 7 hour checkups.
Then tried again. 2nd attempt came back with peer's stratum error, and also
failed at nist.

1 synch has normally been enough for me at any ntp server so that would explain
why this is the 1st time I've seen any errors.

I used the Gainesville synch after the others failed, and it worked.
the server you're connecting to is likely what's blocking you. See errors
above.
 
V

Vanguardx

Jeff W said:
thanks Vx
Click to expand...

Actually I dislike only having one or two NTP servers from which I can
poll. Due to busy servers, outages in routes or backbones, busy
routers, UDP packet loss, etc., I like to be able to poll many NTP
servers. Just because an NTP server is physically close doesn't mean it
will be the fastest to respond or result in the least differential
(i.e., how much the time will be before you get the response). I use
SocketWatch which lets me poll something like a couple hundred different
NTP servers. It does some performance checking and finds the fastest
NTP servers (and will check others while using the fast ones). I've
never had it have a problem finding an NTP server from which it could
get a successful reply.

I'm sure there are other time sync utilities that also will query much
more than a measly couple of time servers. The time sync service in
Windows is really geared for use on a domain where probably the PDC and
BDC provide the time sync services within a company. In a domain
scenario, you really don't need more than 2 NTP servers to choose from.
If you're going to grab one out on the Internet, well, good luck finding
one that always responds, is up 24/7, is never busy, and is always
reachable.
 
H

hbsimon

BigRedWingsFan said:
Thank you!
Click to expand...
I used a little program called AboutTime to synchronise with an
internal time
server no firewall. After upgrading to WIN-XP the program will no sync
to
the time server and Windows-XP builtin time synchronisation does not
work
either, both give an error message that no time server is available.
The
non-upgraded PC's work without problems. Does anyone has information
what changed in SP2 which could cause problems with the time service
protocol used?

Regards,
Horst
 
H

hbsimon

Hi,

The firewall on the xp machine is turned off. I think it has to do
with establishing an initial connection. I re-installed AboutTime and
tried to connect to the server, but it indicated that it could not
establish an connection with the time server, after I copied the
AboutTime.ini from a working PC over it could synchronise the time,
with both time servers on the internal network.

The built-in windows-xp time synchronisation does not work with any
time server on the internal network.

Regards,
Horst
 

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