Net Time with no domain controller

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jon Furman
  • Start date Start date
J

Jon Furman

Hello all. I have a quirky question that I believe has more to do with me
not using AD than AD. I have a few W2K systems set up in workgroup mode,
what I want to do is use the NET TIME command to sync the clocks to a
public external time server. Every time I try this I get a "Could Not Locate
a Time Server" error message even though I can ping the time server
directly. I found a KB article
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;243574) that states
that only a PDC assigned the FSMO role can sync to an external time server.
I'm thinking that maybe this is my problem. Of course, I'm in workgroup mode
and have no DC...period. I'm hoping that someone can verify that this is my
trouble and maybe suggest a workaround. Thanks everyone.

Jon
 
In a workgroup, I think you have a number of choices:

-- You can configure each machine to sync with the external time source.
-- You can configure a machine to sync, and then the others to sync with
that machine.
-- You can schedule a batch file that runs the net time \\server /set /y

For the synchronising using w32time, you should configure the external
source and the internal sources the same way - using net time /setsntp: -
except one will point to the Internet and the others will point to the
machine that points to the Internet.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


Hello all. I have a quirky question that I believe has more to do with me
not using AD than AD. I have a few W2K systems set up in workgroup mode,
what I want to do is use the NET TIME command to sync the clocks to a
public external time server. Every time I try this I get a "Could Not Locate
a Time Server" error message even though I can ping the time server
directly. I found a KB article
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;243574) that states
that only a PDC assigned the FSMO role can sync to an external time server.
I'm thinking that maybe this is my problem. Of course, I'm in workgroup mode
and have no DC...period. I'm hoping that someone can verify that this is my
trouble and maybe suggest a workaround. Thanks everyone.

Jon
 
Thanks for the response. I'm still dead in the water though as I can't get
ANY system in the workgroup to sync to a public server. I always get the
error message:
"Could Not Locate A Time Server". I'm guessing from the KB article that the
problem is that there is no domain controller on my network. Very
frustrating.


Jon
 
That shouldn't be an issue. My home PCs are in a workgroup and they
synchronise with an external source.

How are you synchronising time?

Once you set the SNTP server using net time, you then use the w32tm command.

Furthermore, by default, w32time only shows errors in the event log; it
doesn't show successes. You can turn on success logging if you want to.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


Thanks for the response. I'm still dead in the water though as I can't get
ANY system in the workgroup to sync to a public server. I always get the
error message:
"Could Not Locate A Time Server". I'm guessing from the KB article that the
problem is that there is no domain controller on my network. Very
frustrating.


Jon
 
Yes, this is a good point.

When you run the sync using w32time, use the verbose flag and you'll be able
to see if this is the issue, as the time server won't respond at all.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net
http://forums.msresource.net


Just a thought: You need to have UPD Port 123 open for both outbound as well
as inbound traffic. Is your Firewall preventing this?

--
Cary W. Shultz
Roanoke, VA 24014
Microsoft Active Directory MVP

http://www.activedirectory-win2000.com
http://www.grouppolicy-win2000.com
 
Thanks so much for the replies. I think that I may have it working now...I
think. At least when I run w32tm it seems to talk to the public server OK. I
believe what was throwing me off was that if I issued the command 'net time
/set' I always get back a "no time server found" error. After reading up on
the documentation it doesn't explicitly state that the /set command will
work if the current time source is not on a DC..so could it be that the only
way to test it is with w32tm and examining the event log? I was figuring I
could get some kind of instant verification with net time alone but maybe
not. Please let me know if you all get the same behavior.

Thanks again for your help.


Jon
 
I don't believe net time uses external time sources. It uses the local time
or the internal time source or a specific machine or domain. w32tm is the
way to synchronise with an external source. You can verify success by
looking at the output of the command. You can also run it in verbose mode
for more information.

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net/
http://forums.msresource.net/

Thanks so much for the replies. I think that I may have it working now...I
think. At least when I run w32tm it seems to talk to the public server OK. I
believe what was throwing me off was that if I issued the command 'net time
/set' I always get back a "no time server found" error. After reading up on
the documentation it doesn't explicitly state that the /set command will
work if the current time source is not on a DC..so could it be that the only
way to test it is with w32tm and examining the event log? I was figuring I
could get some kind of instant verification with net time alone but maybe
not. Please let me know if you all get the same behavior.

Thanks again for your help.


Jon
 
That may be the case..it sure would explain why I've been having a hard time
understanding exactly what net time will and won't do. Does that mean that I
would have explicitly schedule a w32tm command to run everyday to keep a
workgroup mode pc synced up good? The documentaiton is very detailed about
some things..like kerberos and skew but pretty mysterious about other
things...like how to get a regular time pulse from a public server.


Jon
 
I figure, but have never really tested, that you synchronise one machine
with an external time source, and then have a batch file that runs "net use
/serverName /set /y" (without the quotes) as a startup script and possibly a
scheduled task.

Windows Time will worry about sorting the external source for you. If
you're worried it's not working, then schedule another batch file on that
machine to run when you want. This one should look something like this:

[Win2000]
net stop w32time
w32tm -once
net start w32time

[WinXP]
w32tm /resync /nowait

--

Paul Williams

http://www.msresource.net/
http://forums.msresource.net/

That may be the case..it sure would explain why I've been having a hard time
understanding exactly what net time will and won't do. Does that mean that I
would have explicitly schedule a w32tm command to run everyday to keep a
workgroup mode pc synced up good? The documentaiton is very detailed about
some things..like kerberos and skew but pretty mysterious about other
things...like how to get a regular time pulse from a public server.


Jon
 
Back
Top