use net time with domain and non domain machines

Nikumba · 11 May 2010 at 15:58

We have a bunch of machines on our test network that are not part of our domain, these are tills and back office machines.

However their clocks keep wandering and I need to work out a way so they can talk to our main domain controller and sync the clocks.

However net time only works with domain machines so what is the best way to do this?

Kimbie

Laser402 · 11 May 2010 at 21:34

Not sure but a google looks like:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816042

NTP Time server basically needs setting up, I believe you can set the NTP Server address in DHCP Options.

Though I havent personally done this.

PistolPete · 12 May 2010 at 00:48

None of my machines are on a domain and they all NET TIME quite happily from my storage server.

If you have internet access on all these machines then you can set them up to NTP from an external NTP server.

Nikumba · 12 May 2010 at 06:36

@PistolPete - But is your storage server a domain machine or not?

The problem we have is a non-domain machine can not conncet to a domain machine to sync the time.

We do not want to use the internet, as our network is not routable, meaning we would have to put a number of rules into it

Kimbie

oddjob62 · 12 May 2010 at 08:45

Our firewall and switches sync their time with our DCs, so i'm sure it should work.

Showboat · 13 May 2010 at 16:24

Net time can be configured to use domain controllers or third party dedicated time sources.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters

Value: Type

Type : REG_SZ
Used to control how a computer synchronizes.
Nt5DS = synchronize to domain hierarchy [default]
NTP = synchronize to manually configured source
NoSync = do not synchronize time

How do you configure the tils / machines to point at a time source, even an XP machine can be setup to be a time source.

Point the tils at any Windows box and do the following:

On XP:
Start - run - mmc: add group policy

Local computer policy\computer configuration\admin templates\system\windows time\time providers - set enable Windows NTP server

PistolPete · 17 May 2010 at 10:43

Nikumba said:
@PistolPete - But is your storage server a domain machine or not?

No it's not, as none of my machines are in a domain.

Nikumba said:
The problem we have is a non-domain machine can not conncet to a domain machine to sync the time.

We do not want to use the internet, as our network is not routable, meaning we would have to put a number of rules into it

Create an account on the domain with the same username and password as the local account being used on the machine outside the domain and try again. Should work now. Give the domain account as little rights as possible that still lets the time sync.