RE: [Full-Disclosure] Windows Time Synchronization - Best Practices
From: Airey, John (John.Airey_at_rnib.org.uk)
Date: 10/26/04
- Previous message: Thomas Biege: "[Full-Disclosure] SUSE Security Announcement: xpdf, gpdf, kpdf, pdftohtml, cups (SUSE-SA:2004:039)"
- Maybe in reply to: Bernardo Santos Wernesback: "[Full-Disclosure] Windows Time Synchronization - Best Practices"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
To: "Andrew Farmer" <andfarm@teknovis.com>, "Gary E. Miller" <gem@rellim.com> Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 13:10:21 +0100
> -----Original Message-----
> From: full-disclosure-admin@lists.netsys.com
> [mailto:full-disclosure-admin@lists.netsys.com]On Behalf Of Andrew
> Farmer
> Sent: 25 October 2004 20:22
> To: Gary E. Miller
> Cc: Micheal Espinola Jr; full-disclosure@lists.netsys.com
> Subject: Re: [Full-Disclosure] Windows Time Synchronization - Best
> Practices
>
>
> On 24 Oct 2004, at 18:48, Gary E. Miller wrote:
> > On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Micheal Espinola Jr wrote:
> >> You can certainly have multiple time servers specified with Windows
> >> Time Service (SNTP). RTM. It has the ability to failover
> through a
> >> list.
> >
> > Yes you can have multiple time servers, but only one active
> at a time.
> > With NTP your client polls a number of diverse servers. Routes can
> > flap, servers can go wacko, but your time stays solid.
>
> The canonical *NIX ntp client supports multiple active servers, if
> that's what you're talking about.
>
> No idea about Windows, though.
Getting back to the poster's original question, Windows is really bad
for time synchronisation. Whereas you can set an NTP server to
UTC/GMT/ZULU (or whatever other name you are going to call it), Windows
does indeed move the clock forward and backward.
We've experienced this difficulty ourselves where you log in to a server
which then puts the clock an hour forward and then Windows itself puts
the clock an hour forward. The end result is that the clock is wrong.
Local time should simply be calculated as an offset from UTC. So instead
of changing the clock, change the time zone. Then it won't matter if the
time zone is changed to BST (for example) more than once. The clock and
the offset will stay the same.
Note to Microsoft - fix this stupidity in your next version of Windows.
It will annoy your users to begin with, but a number of time synch
issues will be solved in one fell swoop. All the three letter codes are
publicly available and understood by your end users.
-- John Airey, BSc (Jt Hons), CNA, RHCE Internet systems support officer, ITCSD, Royal National Institute of the Blind, Bakewell Road, Peterborough PE2 6XU, Tel.: +44 (0) 1733 375299 Fax: +44 (0) 1733 370848 John.Airey@rnib.org.uk Even if Embryonic Stem Cell Research yielded medical treatments, how could enough eggs be obtained to make them viable? We can't even get enough organs for transplant donation. -- DISCLAIMER: NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you should not use, disclose, distribute or copy any of the content of it or of any attachment; you are requested to notify the sender immediately of your receipt of the email and then to delete it and any attachments from your system. RNIB endeavours to ensure that emails and any attachments generated by its staff are free from viruses or other contaminants. However, it cannot accept any responsibility for any such which are transmitted. We therefore recommend you scan all attachments. Please note that the statements and views expressed in this email and any attachments are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RNIB. RNIB Registered Charity Number: 226227 Website: http://www.rnib.org.uk _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
- Previous message: Thomas Biege: "[Full-Disclosure] SUSE Security Announcement: xpdf, gpdf, kpdf, pdftohtml, cups (SUSE-SA:2004:039)"
- Maybe in reply to: Bernardo Santos Wernesback: "[Full-Disclosure] Windows Time Synchronization - Best Practices"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
Relevant Pages
|
