Computer time synchronisation is highly important in modern computer networks, precision and time synchronization is critical in many applications, particularly time sensitive transactions. Just imagine buying an airline seat only to be told at the airport that the ticket was sold twice because it was purchased afterwards on a computer that had a slower clock!

Modern computers do have internal clocks called Real Time Clock chips (RTC) that provide time and date information. These chips are battery backed so that even during power outages, they can maintain time but personal computers are not designed to be perfect clocks. Their design has been optimized for mass production and low-cost rather than maintaining accurate time.

For many applications, this is can be quite adequate, although, quite often machines need time to be synchronised with other PC's on a network and when computers are out of sync with each other problems can arise such as sharing network files, failed transactions or in some environments even fraud!

Microsoft Windows 2003 has a time synchronisation utility built into the operating system called Windows Time (w32time.exe) which can be configured to operate as a network time server. It can be configured to both synchronise a network using the internal clock or an external time source.

Note: Microsoft strongly recommends that you configure a time server with a hardware source rather than from the internet where there is no authentication.

To configure Windows Time service to use the internal hardware clock, first check that w32time is located in the system services list in the registry, to check:

Click Start, Run then type regedit then click ok. Locate and then click the following registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32Time

It is highly recommended that you back up the registry as serious problems may occur if you modify the registry incorrectly, modifications to the registry are done at your own risk.

To begin configuration for an internal clock, click on the following subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeConfigAnnounceFlags In the right pane, right-click AnnounceFlags, then click modify. In Edit DWORD Value, type A in the Value Data box, then click OK Exit Registry Editor

To restart the Windows Time Service click Start, Run (or alternatively use the Command Prompt facility). Type: net stop w32time && net start w32time Then press enter.

To configure the Windows Time service to use an external time source, click Start, Run and type regedit then click OK.

Locate the following subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeParametersType

In the right pane, right-click Type then click Modify, in edit Value type NTP in the Value data box then click OK.

Locate the following subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeConfigAnnounceFlags. In the right pane, right-click AnnounceFlags and click Modify. The 'AnnounceFlags' registry entry indicates whether the server is a trusted time reference, 5 indicates a trusted source so in the Edit DWORD Value box, under Value Data, type 5, then click OK.

Network Time Protocol (NTP) is an Internet protocol used for the transfer of accurate time, providing time information along so that a precise time can be obtained

To enable the Network Time Protocol; NTPserver, locate and click: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeTimeProvidersNtpServer In the right pane, right-click Enabled, then click Modify. In the Edit DWord Value box, type 1 under Value data, then click OK.

Now go back and click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeParametersNtpServer In the right pane, right-click NtpServer, then Modify, in the Edit DWORD Value under Value Data type In the right pane, right-click NtpServer, then Modify, in the Edit DWORD Value under Value Data type the Domain Name System (DNS), each DNS must be unique and you must append 0x1 to the end of each DNS name otherwise changes will not take effect. Now click Ok.

Locate and click the following HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32TimeTimeProvidersNtpClientSpecialPollInterval In the right pane, right-click SpecialPollInterval, then click Modify. In the Edit DWORD Value box, under Value Data, type the number of seconds you want for each poll, ie 900 will poll every 15 minutes, then click OK.

To configure the time correction settings, locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32Timeconfig In the right pane, right-click MaxPosPhaseCorrection, then Modify, in the Edit DWORD Value box, under Base, click Decimal, under Value Data, type a time in seconds such as 3600 (an hour) then click OK.

Now go back and click: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesW32Timeconfig In the right pane, right-click MaxNegPhaseCorrection, then Modify. In the Edit DWORD box under base, click Decimal, under value data type the time in seconds you want to poll such as 3600 (polls in one hour)

Exit Registry Editor Now, to restart windows time service, click Start, Run (or alternatively use the command prompt facility) and type: net stop w32time && net start w32time And that's it your time server should be now up and running.

Copyright (c) 2008 Richard Williams