asked on

w32tm won't change time backwards

I've set up a scheduled task on my W2K-SP4 machine which runs `w32tm -once` periodically, but I've noticed that the time is not being synced to my linux ntp box running ntpd.
My W2K box's clock seems to be running fast, and when I run w32tm the ouptut contains:
"Skewing for backwards, badj, btime = <nnnnn> <nnnnn>"
I'm assuming that it doesn't allow the time to be moved backwards, (is badj "Bad Jump"?)

However, if I manually change the time to 2 hours ahead of time, and run w32tm, it syncs ok.
(Actually, I kept moving the time ahead by a minute at at a time, and resyncing. I found the w32tm syncs if the client time is 4 min or more in the future
Is there any way of forcing w32tm to change the time (I've tried the -s switch but it doesn't make a difference)

Thanks,
John

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

oBdA

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

oobayly

ASKER

My bad, I hadn't read the documentation properly. I had always assumed that running `net start w32time` was a server, not a client.
I take it that all I have to do is set the "Windows Time Service" to start automatically after I've run `net time /setsntp:myntpserver`

Thanks, it does appear the patience is a virtue :D

oobayly

ASKER

As usual it was a case of RTFM!
I've been running tcpdump on the machine running ntpd and have seen that the client running w32time has been polling it every so often. No obvious pattern, but I guess that's because it polls it depending on how the system clock is acting.