Kitz Forum
Internet => Web Browsing & Email => Topic started by: tuftedduck on September 20, 2009, 09:33:23 AM
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On most forums there is a date and time indicator.
Is the time shown there taken from the users PC or from the hosting server ?
Why is TD asking this silly question, I hear you all cry.
On Kitz, the time shown and the time on my PC clock are an exact match but on two other sites I visit I appear to be running two minutes slow.. :(
ps just noticed as I type that Kitz seems to be four minutes behind me.
TD is puzzled.
edit to add......don't think it is my cmos battery, the other symptons of a failed battery do not appear to be present.
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I can't give you an 'official' answer, but I'm fairly certain that the forum time will be based on the host server's time, because a lot of PCs have very inaccurate clocks. If you control your PC's time with NTP or a similar service it ought to match up well with the forum time. After I've posted this, I'll check its time stamp against my PC clock.
[Edit] The time stamp on this message matched my PC clock exactly (which I suppose doesn't prove anything ;D )
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check time
Thank you...........it does seem spot on on the Kitz site, but still two minutes adrift on the other sites.
Not to worry, obviously nothing dramatically wrong anywhere.
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
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My PC clock and the Forum time displayed seems to be the same. There's a couple of seconds difference but that could be page load time?
As Eric says the time is requested from the server.
I'll also check the time stamp when I make this post.
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The Forum time is exactly 5 seconds behind that on my PC
But then again my PC clock is 5 seconds ahead of this:- http://www.timeticker.com/
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My PC is exactly in time with timeticker. 8) ;D
I use NTP to synchronise it with the UK pool of NTP servers at uk.pool.ntp.org and this works very reliably.
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Usually if it's only a matter of minutes, then basically the answers are as above.
But if it's a matter of hours, then the reason is that you are probably using the other sites default country settings, although in sites "user control panel" (or something like that) you can usually change the default to your own country settings.
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Thank you all for your having taken the time and trouble to reply, and please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.
All is clear now......and I have put in a new cmos battery as my wee clock did seem a bit erratic.
Thank you again. :)
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use NTP to synchronise it with the UK pool of NTP servers at uk.pool.ntp.org and this works very reliably
hmmmm... I had a look at my time synchronisation and noticed that I have a pile of Warning Errors in my system log.
W32Time - Which has been going on for ages and I hadnt noticed - after all I dont look in Event Viewer that often.
My system is set to automatically sync with time.windows.com each week, but it seems to have been failing for quite a long while.
I tried a manual resync but it failed again. The obvious thought was perhaps firewall... but no it doesnt appear to be so.
Unfortunately I cant see anywhere in windows to easily put in your own choice of NTP server.
You could probably do so in the registry, but I took the easy option and changed it to the alternative which is time.nist.gov
Once I'd done that, the time immediately successfully synchronised without any problems what so ever and Im now at exactly same time as timeticker. :)
So... for me at least windows time server doesnt seem to be working properly.
I dont know how long this has been going on but from a very quick scan in Event Viewer > System I see little yellow warning triangles about Win32 time going right back to 19th of June, which is the date of my earliest log.
@ TD - It may be worthwhile at least looking at changing the time server to time.nist.gov from the drop down menu.
It can be found under the Internet Time Tab.
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>>@ TD - It may be worthwhile at least looking at changing the time server to time.nist.gov from the drop down menu<<
Have done....ta....and did a time sync. I see that it is scheduled to resync 28th. Sept so it is set to do a check on a weekly basis. ;D
I do recall now that some long months ago ( I think about 20 months when I put in a new motherboard ) I tried to sync with the Windows server and was met with a line of errors, and I did change to time.nist.gov..... but I must have fiddled further at some time as when I looked again today, it was set back to Windows so perhaps that has been the recent problem.
Thanks for your help. :)
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1. Unfortunately I cant see anywhere in windows to easily put in your own choice of NTP server.
2. I dont know how long this has been going on but....
1. Mine is set for "time.windows.com" to insert your own, just highlight the one being shown and type or paste your own then press Apply. (Sometimes it's easy to miss or forget the solution)
2. Years, it's never been very reliable, if you try a manual update it may fail, but try it again 10 seconds later and it will probably work.
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Just one caution - NTP isn't the only time protocol used on the net. I know nothing about Windows, but it might possibly be using a different time protocol, in which case the NTP servers won't work with it.