How do I sync time between two computers?

Question

How do I sync time between two computers?

Anonymous

If I have computers connected through a LAN, how can I get them to sync their times from one authoritative computer? I'm not concerned that they have the true time, but just that they have the same time. I've looked on this page here to setup various things in regedit so that one is ready to act as an authoritative time server:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314054

However, I'm not sure how to actually make the other computers treat it as their source. Like I know if you bring up date and time properties in windows, there is a section for syncing automatically to a internet time server. Is this where I would specify to the non-authoritative computers to read from the authoritative one? And what would I put in as the server? My initial thought was the IP address, but when I try that it just gives an error after trying for a little while.

I'm doing this with computers from windows XP, although the adjust date/time layout in windows 7 is basically the same.

Any help would be appreciated.

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8 additional answers

Answer 1

This is an interesting question.

Of course, if your LAN is connected to the Internet, the obvious solution is to sync both computers to the same Internet time source, such as time.windows.com or time.nist.gov (see http://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi).

The internal real time clocks (RTC) in most computers aren't particularly accurate, but if what you want to do is have two computers sync'ed to the same clock, put all those registry settings back to their defaults and see the response from Hans-Georg Michna here --> http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/sync-time-among-pcs-lan-ntp-t244334.html

The "windowsservername" corresponds to the "full name" of the computer. Right-click My Computer, select Properties, and select the "Computer Name" tab.

If the computer name isn't recognized, it's probably because NetBIOS name resolution isn't enabled. To test, open a Command Prompt windows (Start > Run > cmd > OK) and type

ping computername {press Enter}

Note that you don't use the two back slashes for the ping command. For example, if computers named Alice, Bob, and Carol are on the LAN, on computer Alice, you would type

ping Bob {press Enter}

but if you were trying to sync the time on Alice using Bob as the source of the time, you would type

net time \Bob /set

To test the net time command, run it without the set parameter. For example:

net time \Bob

You should get the following output (following is from Windows 7, but it should be basically the same for XP):

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\LemP>net time \Bob

Current time at \Bob is 7/10/2013 2:30:30 PM

The command completed successfully.

To enable NetBIOS name resolution:

Open Network Connections (Start > Run > ncpa.cpl > OK)
Right click on the icon for your LAN adapter and select Properties
Select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP" and click the "Properties" button
Click the "Advanced" button
Select the WINS tab
Select the middle radio button to "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP"
OK your way out

Answer 2

LemP 74,925 Volunteer Moderator

No, you only have to do it once.

And actually, the only step you need is

net time \othercomputersname /set

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Answer 3

Does this solution only applies for computers that are in the same workgroup?

What if they are in separate LANs, connected through a firewall?

Thank you.

I don't know. In order to have two separate LANs communicate -- with or without the presence of a firewall -- you need a router or at least something that acts as a router between the two LANs. However, if you are able to share files between the computers the time sync should work. Note the following causes of "System Error 5" from KB555644:

Permissions to access the remote computer (Share, NTFS, GPO) are missing.
A firewall or third-party product may eliminate the connection to the remote computer.

Why don't you try it and post the results for the benefit of the community?

Answer 4

I'm really surprised I didn't come across the link you provided, it was exactly what I was looking for. And thank you very much, LemP, for adding some more detail, it was greatly appreciated.

I'm having some trouble getting it to work though. I have dealt with an error 53 issue after making some changes to the firewall and ICMP settings, and I am able to ping each computer with IP adress or computer name successfully. However, when I do the net time command, I'm getting:

"System error 5 has occurred

Access is denied."

While I understand the nature of this error, my googling hasn't been able to resolve the issue. I've tried completely disabling the firewall on both computers but that doesn't seem to be the issue. If you or anyone else has any further insight on to how to properly allow access between the two computers and eliminate this error, I would be very grateful.

Answer 5

I really don't have any insight on this topic, but this KB article seems directly on point --> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555644/en-us Unfortunately, it is mostly aimed at Domain users rather than a Workgroup like your home LAN, and the one "solution" that seems pertinent is remarkably cryptic: "Verity that the time zone is correct and that clock synchronization is working."

Do you have password-protected accounts with the same name on all LAN machines (passwords don't have to be the same, but the account name does)? Can you share files between all machines?

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How do I sync time between two computers?

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