How do you have XP access it's time server

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry
  • Start date Start date
it keeps time via the onboard battery on the mother board, unless you install
a third party software like atomic clock that checks time periodically (user
settings).
 
sgopus said:
it keeps time via the onboard battery on the mother board, unless you install
a third party software like atomic clock that checks time periodically (user
settings).
Click to expand...

.... or allow Windows to synchronize automatically with the Internet
time server of your choice - the default setting.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
sgopus said:
it keeps time via the onboard battery on the mother board, unless you
install a third party software like atomic clock that checks time
periodically (user settings).
Click to expand...
Try double clicking the time icon in the system tray. That will bring up
a dialog that explains it all. Yes, there is a battery on the
motherboard but the op probably knows that, his question is what keeps
the time honest.
Dave Cohen
 
Try double clicking the time icon in the system tray. That will bring up
a dialog that explains it all. Yes, there is a battery on the
motherboard but the op probably knows that, his question is what keeps
the time honest.
Dave Cohen
Click to expand...
Thanks, but if I read correctly it checks the time weekly with no way to make it daily.
 
Terry said:
How often does XP check the time?
I would like to set it to once a day.
Click to expand...


By default, WinXP connects to the designated time server once a week
(every 604800 minutes, to be precise). This polling interval can be
changed by editing the appropriate registry value:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient,
SpecialPollInterval. Set the desired interval (in minutes) by modifying
the value.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
sgopus said:
it keeps time via the onboard battery on the mother board, unless you
install
a third party software like atomic clock that checks time periodically
(user
settings).
Click to expand...


Not exactly so. The motherboard battery does nothing when XP is running.
XP has a time sync service.
 
That would have to be seconds, not minutes. It it is 7 days. 7x24x60x60=604800 seconds
 
Not exactly so. The motherboard battery does nothing when XP is running.
XP has a time sync service.
Click to expand...

How do you think Windows sets the time on a PC that is not connected to the
Net.?

mi
 
How do you think Windows sets the time on a PC that is not connected to
the Net.?

mi
Click to expand...

Time sync is done from the net, it's not what keeps time, nor does the BIOS
battery once the system is running. The motherboard has circuitry that
keeps the time, but a variety of factors can affect it's accuracy including
hardware and software issues. That's why it's set to go outside to the net
to a calibrated time source for the sync.
 
Terry said:
How often does XP check the time?
I would like to set it to once a day.
Click to expand...


Your average Casio watch maintains accuracy with a drift of only a few
seconds over the course of a year. Most PCs are in the same ballpark when
it comes to clock drift, the measure of how fast or slow your clock is when
compared to natural time.

You don't need to change anything, once a week (the default) is plenty. You
have to edit a registry key to change the interval. Decreasing it should
*not* be done. Be kind to your time servers: The more traffic there is,
the longer it takes to get a response when you ask for the time, and thus
the farther your clock will be wrong once your clock gets set to the
response, and the more expensive it becomes to volunteer to help maintain a
free service. (As an aside, I really have to wonder why Windows utterly
ignores DHCP responses that tell the client requesting an IP the best time
server to use...it seems like a saner timeserver policy if they're aiming
for correctness *and* usability would be to listen to what DHCP tells it,
and if it doesn't get a time server from DHCP because the server didn't
include that in the response or the workstation is configured statically,
try the configured DNS servers to be used as time servers. Many LANs and
ISPs alike run local timeservers to help distribute NTP load (thus making
it more likely you will have a nice, fast response that doesn't set your
clock slow)).

If you *really* want to play with that value, increase the interval to
something much longer. Unless you have a hardware problem that's causing
your clock to be significantly incorrect over a period of time shorter than
a week (which you should start to troubleshoot that by changing your
motherboard's battery), it's just not necessary to do it more often and is
usually frowned upon by time server operators.
 
miss-information said:
How do you think Windows sets the time on a PC that is not connected to
the Net.?
Click to expand...

From the battery-backed clock on the motherboard, like pretty much every
other relatively modern OS out there...
 
Terry,

I haven't tried this, but perhaps you could write a short batch file based
on knowledge base article 307897 (subsection "How to synchronize an internal
time server with an external source"), and then use the Scheduled Tasks
applet in the Control Panel to run the batch file daily. Article 314054 has a
more direct method, but it looks more complex, and therefore more can
conceivably go wrong. These are just articles that a search of the KB turned
up. Somebody speak up if I'm leading Terry down the wrong path!

Andy R.
 
"Andy R. from Oregon"wrote
Terry,

I haven't tried this, but perhaps you could write a short batch file based
on knowledge base article 307897 (subsection "How to synchronize an
internal
time server with an external source"), and then use the Scheduled Tasks
applet in the Control Panel to run the batch file daily. Article 314054
has a
more direct method, but it looks more complex, and therefore more can
conceivably go wrong. These are just articles that a search of the KB
turned
up. Somebody speak up if I'm leading Terry down the wrong path!

Andy R.
Click to expand...

The registry can be edited directly to change the time interval used for the
check.
 
Back
Top