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May 21, 2007
Windows Time Synchronization Error
I noticed that the time on my computer was about five minutes fast, which isn't supposed to happen because I have my PC set up so that Windows automatically synchronizes the time with time.nist.gov. So, I went into "Date and Time Properties" - "Internet Time" and clicked "Update Now" and it says "An error occurred while Windows was synchronizing with time.nist.gov". So great. It's not working. Excellent. I remember that this was a pain to set up initially, because my ISP was blocking the port used by Windows Time Synchronization. Maybe they're blocking it again? Who knows. So, I googled for "Windows time service xp" and found this post.
I went to Start - Settings - Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Then, I checked the "Windows Time" service, and verified that the "Windows Time" service was running.
I checked the Event Viewer, and for some reason, I don't see any messages, warnings, or errors in the log from the Time Sync errors. Not sure why.
The document indicates that the time synchronization service uses UDP traffic over port 123. So, I checked my Windows Firewall settings first. Start - Settings - Conrol Panel - Windows Firewall. The firewall is turned on, and the "Don't Allow Exceptions" is unchecked, but I don't see anything relating to Port 123 under the Exceptions. So, I followed these directions and added Port 123 as SNTP with UDP enabled. Then, I clicked "Update Now" again, but still no dice. Same error. Just to be belt-and-suspenders safe, I turned off the firewall. For the sake of testing.
Now, let's look at the router. I opened up my Cisco Linksys WAP Router/Switch and clicked on "Advanced" and "Forwarding" for Port Range Forwarding. Lo-and-behold, it looks like my stupid Vonage VOIP is hogging up port 123. So, that does explain things, I suppose. Ouch. Port 123 is being used for something else. Yikes.
So, I tried changing the Port 123 forwarding to go to my server's static NAT IP address instead of to my Vonage/Linksys Phone Adapter static NAT IP address. Still no dice. Arrrrgh.
I tried clicking on "Update Now" and now I noticed that it says "An error occurred while Windows was synchronizing with time.nist.gov. The peer is unreachable." Now, maybe it said that bit about "The peer is unreachable" all along. Maybe not. Not clear on this.
So now, looking for the "peer is unreachable" message, I found this post and I changed my time server to be "129.6.15.29" and it worked. So, not sure why it won't work with "nist.time.gov", but it won't, and it works fine with "129.6.15.29". Go figure.
Turned my firewall back on and verified that it will still sync through the firewall. So that's working. Then, I changed my setting back in the router so that the Port Forwarding Range points to my Vonage Phone Adapter instead of my server for Port 123, and it still synchronizes fine. Go figure.
Finally, I changed it to resync the time every day instead of every week.
Posted by Rob Kiser on May 21, 2007 at 9:50 AM
Comments
The site linked by your sentence "Finally, I changed it to resync the time every day instead of every week" has an error in the link; apparently it's a linux server that is case-sensitive. The correct link is:
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/tune-17.html
Posted by: Leexray on April 16, 2009 at 7:50 AM