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ITsVISTA Tip 17: Is Your Vista On Internet Time? Mine Wasn’t

January 6th, 2007 · 18 Comments · 13,034 views
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TipsInternet time servers have been around for a while to help synchronize computer clocks. For most of us, this isn’t a critical need, but occasionally having your computer at the correct time could be important. There have been utilities around for as long as there have been time servers that will synchronize your computer with the servers. In Windows XP, they built this function in (though I never even noticed it), and it’s built into Vista as well.

I noticed today while looking at an atomic clock that my computer wasn’t in sync, I was 20 seconds slow. For someone with anal-retentive tendencies like myself, this just won’t do! So, if you’re like me, and you want to be sure your clock is kept at the right time, here’s where you can look to change those settings, and to update it immediately. The more observant of you might notice that the times are out of sync in the pictures. I started by syncing the time, then thought I better show you some pics of how to get there. I told you, anal retentive!

  1. If you point at your clock, you’ll get a little pop-up that shows you the date
    Date pop-up
  2. If you click on the clock, a window opens showing you an analog clock and a calendar. Click on Change date and time settings…
    Change date and time settings
  3. In the Date and Time window, click on the tab called Internet Time.
    Internet Time tab
  4. Notice on mine, it tells me that I had an error while synchronizing. To try and fix this, click on Change settings….
    Change Settings
  5. You’ll see you have the option to not synchronize with a time server if you so choose. By default Vista is set to sync with time.windows.com. Clicking on Update now still gave me an error.
    An error occurred
  6. Click on the drop down arrow and you’ll see other servers you can try to sync with. You can actually add more/different servers to this list by editing the registry. If you’d like to modify them, take a look at:

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Servers]

    The server list

  7. I had to try a few before one of them worked. It immediately tells you if it succeeded in syncing or not.
    Successfully synchronized
  8. You’ll see the time of the next synchronization, Vista automatically syncs once a week.
    Next Synchronization
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Comments

  • Mr B

    Mar 7, 2007 at 8:55 pm

    I found that McAfee firewall had to have port 123 explicitly allowed to enable the automatic sync.

    In McAfee Security Center:
    Configure -> Internet & Firewall -> Firewall Protection -> Advanced -> System Services -> Network Time Protocol Port 123

    Now it works!

  • Joe

    Mar 7, 2007 at 9:23 pm

    Surprising that McAfee wouldn’t pre-program that one. I’m sure a lot of people would never think of enabling that. Thanks for the tip!

  • Andrew

    Mar 19, 2007 at 12:06 pm

    Yeah, thanks for the info. I was getting frustrated not being able to update the time but knew it had something to do with SecurityCenter since if I disabled it then I could sync with the time server.

  • Randy

    Mar 19, 2007 at 8:53 pm

    Nice find, this was driving me crazy!!!

  • harold bob

    Mar 25, 2007 at 7:54 am

    thank you for the mcafee fix on internet time psych

  • Andy Boyce

    May 17, 2007 at 1:42 am

    I have tried folloiwng this but when I open the time and date window in Vista it does not have a tab for ‘Internet time’ as shown in your example. I only have ‘date and time’ and ‘additional clocks’ tabs. Help please !

  • Joe

    May 17, 2007 at 9:07 am

    Looking at a few setups I have here, I noticed that I see the tab on my laptop, which is in a workgroup, but I don’t see the tab on an image that is part of a domain. I also just realized I don’t know how to get elevated privileges on that machine! If I was to guess, I’d say that you are probably part of a domain, and the machine needs to stay in sync with the domain, so it’s getting it’s time from the domain servers, and therefore doesn’t allow you to try and sync with internet time. Let me know if I’m on the right track!

  • Alan Cates

    May 20, 2007 at 11:47 am

    The DOT GOV time sources are top level providers. It is best practice not to use those Time Services except for local domain servers.

    Home and SOHO users can use second or third tear providers to avoid overloading the top level.

    Google NTP Time Server List
    Or see: http://ntp.isc.org/bin/view/Servers/WebHome

  • Andy Boyce

    May 21, 2007 at 7:16 am

    Thanks Joe. It was picking up the time from my server on the domian. I have correct this now and all is sorted…many thanks !

  • Sly

    Jul 2, 2007 at 7:56 am

    Thanks a lot for the McAfee solution, man I looked hard for that one!

    Cheers!
    Sly

  • shahid khan

    Jul 29, 2007 at 5:08 am

    thanks dear
    can u please tell me how can i change my clock from 24hr into 12hr

  • PCkarma

    Aug 15, 2007 at 5:46 am

    Thank you so much, Joe. I would have never realiazed by myself it was so simple. Now I can see the right time on my desk bar. Superb!

  • Our Generic Blog

    Aug 16, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    [...] traffic on that port and now time synch works. Thanks to a comment by “Mr B” to an article at ITsVista for helping me figure this [...]

  • thejanet

    Aug 21, 2007 at 12:26 pm

    Thank you! This was (just one of the many) problems really bugging me in Vista. It was the McAfee fix that did it for me.

  • Planet Vista

    Sep 5, 2007 at 2:16 am

    Excellent tips!

    I wasn’t aware that I wasn’t on “time” via McAfee’s firewall. I had went through my Event Viewer to check nightly logs and found a problem with time synchronization.

    It’s amazing how the answers to everything lie in waiting, somewhere on the net. It’s no wonder that I’m addicted to the net, the more one cybersurfs… the more knowledge one gains. :)

  • bhaley1059

    Dec 1, 2007 at 11:31 am

    Mr B

    Mar 7, 2007 at 8:55 pm

    I found that McAfee firewall had to have port 123 explicitly allowed to enable the automatic sync.

    In McAfee Security Center:
    Configure -> Internet & Firewall -> Firewall Protection -> Advanced -> System Services -> Network Time Protocol Port 123

    Now it works!
    GREAT TIP THANKS!
    First time here nice site

  • auldane

    Dec 8, 2007 at 1:28 am

    Huh, I was trying to sync and it kept timing out. I actually found I had to enable port 123 on the windows firewall (I don’t have McAfee installed).

    Windows Firewall -> Change Settings ->Exceptions -> Add Port.

    I used
    Name: Time
    Port number: 123
    protocol: tcp

  • sp

    Mar 3, 2008 at 7:14 am

    Thanks Mr. B I’ve had Vista and McAfee (I hate both)for a year and I just blew internet sync off. It’s nice to have it done.

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