Automatic time synchronization

The clock on many Windows PCs in homes and small businesses can be off by a few minutes. To digitally record your favorite TV shows, not miss important meeting times, or help with other situations that involve precise timing. Having the correct time is critical for system and network security, especially when you communicate between multiple systems. You should consider downloading the time in your local area from a website and then automatically adjusts the time in your phone or computer. Do this and you should receive a confirmation that your time is successfully synchronized.

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Having the correct time is critical for system and network security, especially when you communicate between multiple systems.

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@agarza6y I've had MAJOR issues with Windows Vista and Windows7 maintaining time. Pointing to a different time server (actually the pool servers listed above) didn't help.?

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@agarza6y Synchronizing the time daily didn't help either. If you try to sync more often, your IP may be blocked, so ...

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@haustin70 Oh, and?if your system isn't keeping time correctly and you power it off, changing the CMOS battery may be the fix you need.

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@agarza6y Ok then...What time is it? :)

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@haustin70 Most of the larger companies I've consulted for use an enterprise-level hardware clock that supports NTP and sync their PDCs with that.

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The work environment had 65,000 desktops and 20,000 servers. I can't say that every desktop was off 5 minutes, just that mine would be, sometimes. Usually, it was within a minute.

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@klynch75 Seems that hyper-accurate time is really important for satellite work. ;)

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Accurate time is an obsession here.

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My laptop is on a domain, so it was syncing to the domain controller, which was 3 minutes off.?

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@jsims78 It's a really bad idea to change the time on a domain connected computer. It needs to be in sync with the domain time (doesn't matter what the real time is) to be able to properly authenticate.

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@ajames79 Really. Didn't know that. Too

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Good post, thank you.

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There's no point in changing from the standard "time.windows.com" since that server synchronizes with ntp.org one and it has a lot more capacity than ntp.org one.

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@smorrison7c You are not going to make things any more accurate than they are right now and will only put needless load on the primary pool.ntp.org servers

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@cmitchell7d Strongly agreed, this is a silly tip.

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@smorrison7c ?Akamai has more than enough capacity to handle the load. And chances are akamai's servers are going to be closer to you than some random volunteer server

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Its funny that I read this now.

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?I work for a company that not only would EVERY PC have different times, but the phones would differ too.

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@fgomez7h Is there something inherently inaccurate about the Windows server? Changing the server won't make it sync more often, so if the computer has a problem, it'll exist regardless of what it's synced to.

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@bfranklin7i Syncing with time.windows.com is as accurate as you're going to get. It's fruitless going elsewhere.

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@fgomez7h So.... whadd'r'u tryin to say?

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This is obviously an issue that lots of folks are having.

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Perhaps I'm an idiot that I can't figure out how to get time accurate?

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@pkim7m Type time.windows.com into your browser's address bar to see where it is currently getting its time from - it changes throughout the day.

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@bgarrett7n I've never had an issue with my pc clock being off. It's generally perfectly (to the second) in sync with my phone and cable box.

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@pkim7m I just check against www.time.gov and one of us is off by ten seconds. I can live with that level of uncertainty.

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