Mac time stamp errors on W2K server

[Chris Icenhour]

I am battling a problem with time stamps on Mac files -
Photoshop, Illustrator, and QuarkXPress files stored on a
W2K server. Appears that all Mac files have the same
problem. The time stamps between users are always changing
ON THE SERVER.

An example:
The Catalog Director places a file from her Mac onto the
W2K server with a time stamp of 12/2/03 16:45.
The President checks the file from his Mac an hour or so
later. He reads the time stamp as 11/24/03 at 18:52.
Panic ensues.
Catalog checks the the file from her Mac, and it states
12/2/03 21:38.

Brief config to see it this is a problem. We have a W2K3
server running Active Directory and as the domain
controller, plus the W2K server, which runs File Server
for Macitosh. This is the server that has the problems.

What would cause these disparate times? We rely on these
time stamps to product our artwork and catalog. This is
the only way we can track whether files have been updated
and ready to print.

 

[Chris Icenhour]

Seems like information is not 100% accurate. Seems that
the time stamps are off for files on the server, when
reviewed from different Macs. Off by exactly 30 minutes.

I have seen a fix for this on MacWindows.com, but that
does not address the cause of the problem. Any takers on
this, now that it is limited to errors in reading the time
stamps?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Tony Sheppard]

Seems like information is not 100% accurate. Seems that
the time stamps are off for files on the server, when
reviewed from different Macs. Off by exactly 30 minutes.

I have seen a fix for this on MacWindows.com, but that
does not address the cause of the problem. Any takers on
this, now that it is limited to errors in reading the time
stamps?

You need to have all machines pointing to timeservers with the same time.
You don't say what OS is on the Mac, but if using OSX then set the time
server to one of the Apple ones, and then also set the DC with the FSMO
roles to this Time Server too, and all other Windows machines should take
their time from it ....

There are some 3rd party utils that will help with setting accurate time,
but this is pretty much the easiest and solved a lot of our problems.

HTH

Tony Sheppard

 

[William M. Smith]

You need to have all machines pointing to timeservers with the same time.
You don't say what OS is on the Mac, but if using OSX then set the time
server to one of the Apple ones, and then also set the DC with the FSMO
roles to this Time Server too, and all other Windows machines should take
their time from it ....

There are some 3rd party utils that will help with setting accurate time,
but this is pretty much the easiest and solved a lot of our problems.

Windows 2000 server can act as an NTP time server itself and I believe this
is enabled by default. NTP is the time protocol used by Mac OS.

Point your Macs' Date & Time settings to the IP address of the server or its
DNS name. The impact of doing this should be negligible to the server.

Hope this helps! bill