uHOWTO: NTP in Windows 2003 – manual intervention required

July 23rd, 2012

Atomic Clock Up to Windows 2000, using an NTP server as the time source was as simple as entering the server address in the Time/Date control panel. From 2003 onwards, you must follow the procedure detailed in KB816042 to configure the Windows Time service to use an external time source.

Paraphrasing:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters\Type=”NTP”
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\AnnounceFlags=5
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer=1
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters=”pool.ntp.org,0×1″
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient\SpecialPollInterval=900
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\MaxPosPhaseCorrection=3600
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Config\MaxNegPhaseCorrection =3600
  • net stop w32time && net start w32time

You may replace pool.ntp.org above for any other server (or servers, space-separated) with “,0×1″ after each host name. And keep an eye in the Event Log after you restart the service.

  • link
  • link
  • link
  • link
  • link

Comments Off