My computer clock is loosing time. I have limited access to the Internet, dial-up only. Is there a freeware program that will update my clock via dial-up? What are your experiences? The computer in question is currently running XP.
First, double click the clock time in your system tray to bring up the Clock/Calendar UI
Next, click the Internet Time tab to open the update selector
Finally, click the update button when you're online to update
In this example you can see that I didn't connect properly to the server selected, so use the drop down to choose another.
You might want to set up a task in the scheduler to dial up your connection every so many days or hours and re-update your time automatically, in the background
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Is this a new problem or has it always been losing time? If it just started to do this, it is a symptom of a low backup battery on your mainboard. If it is getting weak, you could also lose some important BIOS settings. The best way to check it is to replace it with a new one and see if the problem goes away.
Regarding software to set your clock, try a web search and you might find something.
Neil
But I was sweating it for a moment there 🙂
Great comment about the battery, BTW!
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While Windows XP does have a built-in time sync capability, it has a few problems. The main one is that Microsoft, as usual, does things differently than everyone else. MS assumes that all PC's will be used in one of their Active Directory Domains, and that "close" is good enough for time syncing. If a few seconds plus/minus is ok with you, then use the built-in software.
The second problem is that by default, the built-in software will only sync once per week. You can change the period, but it requires editing the registry.
On a related note, even though the built-in software lists "time.nist.gov" as a choice, it is not a good idea to use this. The NIST time servers are supposed to be used by large organizations that have their own time server that syncs to NIST. The organization's internal PC's will then sync to the organization's time server. Having millions of user PC's syncing directly to NIST puts an immense load on them. MS should not really provide this as a choice.
It is better to use the one provided by MS: "time.windows.com". If for some reason you can't use that one, use one of the freely available time servers at NTP.ORG. An example is listed below. You can change the leading digit to 0-2. If you are not in the US, check the NTP.ORG site for other country abreviations. These time servers are specifically setup to be used by anyone and to spread the load around (a "pool" of servers).
0.us.pool.ntp.org
We run BSTime on all of our machines. Free & works! Can't ask for better than that.
This may be obvious to some, but when using any third-party time sync utility, make sure that you uncheck the "automatically sync" option on Windows built-in software. Otherwise, you'll have two pieces of software trying to sync your clock.
I haven't tried BSTime, but I imagine it should be as good as any other third-party sync utility. There are quite a few sync programs out there - some free, some not.
One free sync utility that I use on my automation PC is DSClock: http://www.dualitysoft.com/dsclock/. It not only can sync your PC's clock, but it allows you to put a large clock display on your screen. I have the date/time display as a transparent overlay in the title bar of ZaraRadio. The only drawback of this program is that to add a new time server, you have to edit a configuration file. It's a text file, so it isn't a big deal.
Here's another good time synch utility that I have used with good success:
http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/
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