W32Time on WindowsXP - synchronization through proxy server (eg. ProxyPlus) - question and answer

[Mike Hardman]

In case you have the same problem...

I had trouble getting 'Date and Time' to synchronize with any Internet time
server, due to connecting to the Internet through a proxy server (software)
on a separate PC on my network; I am using ProxyPlus not ICS. Windows XP
help didn't, but a few MS TechNet/KnowledgeBase articles and other web sites
provide some partial answers, resulting in...

The answer:

1. In the proxy server, on the bastion host (say, 192.168.1.1)
define a mapped link "UDPbi 123 time.nist.gov:123" (then
stop & restart proxy server)
[ie. a bidirectional link to UDP port 123 - the well-known
port for the NTP protocol, including your chosen time server]

2. On the XP machine, add 192.168.1.1 as a time provider in
the registry: add a new value (type = string) in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DateTime\Server
s;
exit regedit

3. Go to the date/time properties
a. double-click the in the task bar
b. in the InternetTime tab, select 192.168.1.1 as the server
c. click update now

4. If time.nist.gov gives problems sometime in the future, try
changing the mapped link in the proxy server to point to one of:
a. ntp2.usno.navy.mil
b. tock.usno.navy.mil
c. others from http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/servers.htm

My setup, for reference:
- a few PCs running WXP,W98,WME,W95 through 10/100 NICs and a 10/100 hub
- one PC serving as a bastion host (firewall and proxy server) connected
through cable modem to the Internet
- static IP addressing my side of the cable modem
- no changes made to XP through group policy editor (it looked promising
once)
- 'Windows Time' service probably needs to be enabled; it should be by
default; it is listed and can be disabled through MSCONFIG.EXE; if you can't
get time syncing working, you might want to consider disabling the service
here - to save the plethora of alerts accumulating in the logs due to
automatic syncing failing (seems to persist even if you uncheck the box in
the Internet Time tab of the 'Date and Time Properties')

[Bill Sanderson]

Thanks for the post, Mike--this will be useful info for others in a similar
circumstance.

"Mike Hardman" <mikeh...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:GVnY7.25420$ll6.3...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...