Help with NET TIME command

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stubby
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Stubby

I used NET TIME /SETSNTP time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov . PING of
that host works. But if I just ask for the time with NET TIME it
pauses and says Cannot locate a time-server.

Using other time servers fail the same way. Can somebody tell me how
to fix this? TIA
 
Stubby said:
I used NET TIME /SETSNTP time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov . PING of
that host works. But if I just ask for the time with NET TIME it
pauses and says Cannot locate a time-server.

Using other time servers fail the same way. Can somebody tell me how
to fix this? TIA

The command
net time /?
tells you what the switches and their syntax is. The correct syntax is

NET TIME /SETSNTP:time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
 
The command
net time /?
tells you what the switches and their syntax is. The correct syntax is

NET TIME /SETSNTP:time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov

As I said, setting the server works. But getting the time says
"can't locate a time server".
 
The command
net time /?
tells you what the switches and their syntax is. The correct syntax is

NET TIME /SETSNTP:time-a.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov

As I said, setting the server works. But getting the time says
"can't locate a time server".

============

This may well be but the fact is that you dropped a colon in your command.
 
As I said, setting the server works.   But getting the time says
"can't locate a time server".

============

This may well be but the fact is that you dropped a colon in your command..- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Now I believe the problem is that port 123 (SNTP) is blocked. How
can I test it to determine if there is a process listening on it and
that it is not blocked by my router or some piece of Win2K?
 
As I said, setting the server works. But getting the time says
"can't locate a time server".

============

This may well be but the fact is that you dropped a colon in your
command.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Now I believe the problem is that port 123 (SNTP) is blocked. How
can I test it to determine if there is a process listening on it and
that it is not blocked by my router or some piece of Win2K?

==================

Windows does not "listen" on port 123 - it uses it. It may well be that your
router or firewall blocks port 123 packets. I would turn off the firewall
during testing and also run some tests with a different router. For further
reading I recommend you type the following words into a Google search box:
port 123 sntp time
You'll see a number of useful links on this subject. By the way - did you
try using time.windows.com as your time server?
 
Now I believe the problem is that port 123 (SNTP) is blocked.   How
can I test it to determine if there is a process listening on it and
that it is not blocked by my router or some piece of Win2K?

==================

Windows does not "listen" on port 123 - it uses it. It may well be that your
router or firewall blocks port 123 packets. I would turn off the firewall
during testing and also run some tests with a different router. For further
reading I recommend you type the following words into a Google search box:
port 123 sntp time
You'll see a number of useful links on this subject. By the way - did you
try using time.windows.com as your time server?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Windows DOES listen on port 123 for SNTP info. From the Kloth paper
I found using your suggestion to Google:

"The SNTP protocol is described in RFC-2030.
The NTP time server is listening on UDP port 123.
SNTP formats are compatible to the NTP protocol specification, using a
simplified access strategy for servers and clients; the access
paradigm is identical to the UDP/TIME protocol."

Switching to time.windows.com did not help. I don't see anything in
my Linksys router that is blocking anything. I installed Atomic Clock
Set and it works!

I don't know how to find out what Win2KSP4 is blocking. In fact I
don't know if it has a firewall in it. Can anyone tell me?

That leaves my Antivirus, AVAST. or maybe something that CCleaner
install. Or Spyware Blaster that I also use.
 
Now I believe the problem is that port 123 (SNTP) is blocked. How
can I test it to determine if there is a process listening on it and
that it is not blocked by my router or some piece of Win2K?

==================

Windows does not "listen" on port 123 - it uses it. It may well be that
your
router or firewall blocks port 123 packets. I would turn off the firewall
during testing and also run some tests with a different router. For
further
reading I recommend you type the following words into a Google search box:
port 123 sntp time
You'll see a number of useful links on this subject. By the way - did you
try using time.windows.com as your time server?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Windows DOES listen on port 123 for SNTP info. From the Kloth paper
I found using your suggestion to Google:

"The SNTP protocol is described in RFC-2030.
The NTP time server is listening on UDP port 123.
SNTP formats are compatible to the NTP protocol specification, using a
simplified access strategy for servers and clients; the access
paradigm is identical to the UDP/TIME protocol."

Switching to time.windows.com did not help. I don't see anything in
my Linksys router that is blocking anything. I installed Atomic Clock
Set and it works!

I don't know how to find out what Win2KSP4 is blocking. In fact I
don't know if it has a firewall in it. Can anyone tell me?

That leaves my Antivirus, AVAST. or maybe something that CCleaner
install. Or Spyware Blaster that I also use.

=============

Win2000 does not have an inbuilt firewall. I don't remember if it has a Safe
Mode with Networking but if it has then you should try it in order to
eliminate interference from your various protective programs.

There is another potential problem. Most registry cleaners are considered
either useless (at best) or damaging (at worst). Have you considered the
possibility that CCleaner might be the cause of your problem? Uninstalling
won't help you - if it damaged the registry then the damage is done.
 
Windows DOES listen on port 123 for SNTP info.   From the Kloth paper
I found using your suggestion to Google:

"The SNTP protocol is described in RFC-2030.
The NTP time server is listening on UDP port 123.
SNTP formats are compatible to the NTP protocol specification, using a
simplified access strategy for servers and clients; the access
paradigm is identical to the UDP/TIME protocol."

Switching to time.windows.com did not  help.  I don't see anything in
my Linksys router that is blocking anything.  I installed Atomic Clock
Set and it works!

I don't know how to find out what Win2KSP4 is blocking.   In fact I
don't know if it has a firewall in it.  Can anyone tell me?

That leaves my Antivirus, AVAST.   or maybe something that CCleaner
install.  Or Spyware Blaster that I also use.

=============

Win2000 does not have an inbuilt firewall. I don't remember if it has a Safe
Mode with Networking but if it has then you should try it in order to
eliminate interference from your various protective programs.

There is another potential problem. Most registry cleaners are considered
either useless (at best) or damaging (at worst). Have you considered the
possibility that CCleaner might be the cause of your problem? Uninstalling
won't help you - if it damaged the registry then the damage is done.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I tried Safe Mode with Net (no anti-virus software). W32time still
could not find the time server. Atomic Time Sync works fine. Looking
through the registry for W32* didn't show any unusual (smashed)
entries but I didn't see any entry that holds the time-server host
address either. I have no evidence that CCleaner caused any problem.
Is there a way to get W2K to reinstall W32Time and related files?
 
Windows DOES listen on port 123 for SNTP info. From the Kloth paper
I found using your suggestion to Google:

"The SNTP protocol is described in RFC-2030.
The NTP time server is listening on UDP port 123.
SNTP formats are compatible to the NTP protocol specification, using a
simplified access strategy for servers and clients; the access
paradigm is identical to the UDP/TIME protocol."

Switching to time.windows.com did not help. I don't see anything in
my Linksys router that is blocking anything. I installed Atomic Clock
Set and it works!

I don't know how to find out what Win2KSP4 is blocking. In fact I
don't know if it has a firewall in it. Can anyone tell me?

That leaves my Antivirus, AVAST. or maybe something that CCleaner
install. Or Spyware Blaster that I also use.

=============

Win2000 does not have an inbuilt firewall. I don't remember if it has a
Safe
Mode with Networking but if it has then you should try it in order to
eliminate interference from your various protective programs.

There is another potential problem. Most registry cleaners are considered
either useless (at best) or damaging (at worst). Have you considered the
possibility that CCleaner might be the cause of your problem? Uninstalling
won't help you - if it damaged the registry then the damage is done.- Hide
quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I tried Safe Mode with Net (no anti-virus software). W32time still
could not find the time server. Atomic Time Sync works fine. Looking
through the registry for W32* didn't show any unusual (smashed)
entries but I didn't see any entry that holds the time-server host
address either. I have no evidence that CCleaner caused any problem.
Is there a way to get W2K to reinstall W32Time and related files?

=================

If your registry "cleaner" modified the some sensitive part of the registry
then it's anyone's guess what it might have done, largely because registry
cleaners have to do a lot of guessing when they go about their "cleaning"
business. After all a typical registry contains 10,000 keys or more, and how
is a registry cleaner supposed to know the exact function of each of them?
Registry cleaners work by applying the FUD factor: Fear, Uncertainty and
Doubt. They report a large number of so-called "errors" and
"inconsistencies", thus creating fear in the user's mind. They then ask him
if he really wants to continue running his machine in this semi-crippled
way. This is the Uncertainty and Doubt part. They then go about their
business and boast at the end that the machine is now "optimised". Most
users will believe this because they never ran any benchmarch tests. If they
had then they would realise that the machine performs no better and no worse
than before - except that some registry cleaners inadvertently break certain
things.

OK, I'll get off my soap box. If I was in your position then I would type
this into a Google search box, then examine the most promising links:

install windows "time server"

Good luck!
 
I tried Safe Mode with Net (no anti-virus software).  W32time still
could not find the time server.  Atomic Time Sync works fine.  Looking
through the registry for W32* didn't show any unusual (smashed)
entries but I didn't see any entry that holds the time-server host
address either.  I have no evidence that CCleaner caused any problem.
Is there a way to get W2K to reinstall W32Time and related files?

=================

If your registry "cleaner" modified the some sensitive part of the registry
then it's anyone's guess what it might have done, largely because registry
cleaners have to do a lot of guessing when they go about their "cleaning"
business. After all a typical registry contains 10,000 keys or more, and how
is a registry cleaner supposed to know the exact function of each of them?
Registry cleaners work by applying the FUD factor: Fear, Uncertainty and
Doubt. They report a large number of so-called "errors" and
"inconsistencies", thus creating fear in the user's mind. They then ask him
if he really wants to continue running his machine in this semi-crippled
way. This is the Uncertainty and Doubt part. They then go about their
business and boast at the end that the machine is now "optimised". Most
users will believe this because they never ran any benchmarch tests. If they
had then they would realise that the machine performs no better and no worse
than before - except that some registry cleaners inadvertently break certain
things.

OK, I'll get off my soap box. If I was in your position then I would type
this into a Google search box, then examine the most promising links:

install windows "time server"

Good luck!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Your rant about registry cleaners is unwarranted. They do very
reasonable things such as if a registry entry holds a file name, the
cleaner checks to see that the file exists and is readable. In other
words, the cleaner does not "know" how the entry works or how it
relates to the other entries. I have never had a problem with the
various cleaners that I have used in many years.

The documentation on time servers is way out of date and contains
broken links.
 
Stubby said:
Your rant about registry cleaners is unwarranted.

They're next to utterly useless and tend to cause more harm than good.
Anyone who wants to keep their Windows installation in good working
order would do well to refrain from running useless programs on their
machines.

John
 
Your rant about registry cleaners is unwarranted. They do very
reasonable things such as if a registry entry holds a file name, the
cleaner checks to see that the file exists and is readable. In other
words, the cleaner does not "know" how the entry works or how it
relates to the other entries. I have never had a problem with the
various cleaners that I have used in many years.

==============

May I quote you: "I have never had a problem with the various cleaners that
I have used in many years", "until now" [my suffix]. By the way, did you
ever derive any measurable benefit from using them? I'm looking for
something a little more substantial than a missing file.
 
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