[time-nuts] Setting Windows XP clock.

Sun Jul 13 14:50:05 EDT 2014

Yes the isolated LAN works perfectly.  It in effect takes the XP
machine off the public internet.   However there is a lower cost
solution that does the same thing.   What you do is "virtualize" all
the hardware that is described below.   The XP machine and the bridge
computer can be the same hardware PC.  The private, isolated LAN can
be internal to the PC and simulated also by the virtualized hardware.
 It sounds inefficient but in real life it is not.   Most large data
centers that run Windows servers run them on virtual machines with a
rather high ratio of virtual to physical hardware.  It sounds complex
but in real life it greatly simplifies the overall setup of the data
center and saves quite a bit of money too.   The added software can be
free.      Another advantage is that if the XP machine does even get
corrupted it is trivial to restore it to a know good state.  Typically
just one click and the effect is instant.  this compared to a physical
machine where you'd need to wipe the disk and restore from backups.

+++BACK ON TOPIC+++.  None of this solves the OP's problem of time no
longer getting updated.  His theory that something changed at
Microsoft's end is proven wrong.  My copy of XP is "freshly installed
from CD" and gets good updates from Microsoft's time server.
Something else is causing his problem.

On Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 11:16 AM, DaveH <info at blackmountainforge.com> wrote:
> A good workaround is to set up a local area network. Have a "bridge" machine
> connected to the internet and then have a second network port and use that
> to connect your XP boxes.
>
> I have two projects which require XP and this is what I use - private
> networks.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network
> The bridge machine talks to my DSL router as 192.168.0.0/16
> My in-house XP boxes talk to the bridge as 10.0.0.0/8
> The two networks never see each other.
>
> This is basically the same technique as Esa is talking about with the
> Network Address Translation (NAT) firewall only you have an actual computer
> (storage and ability to download stuff off the net) instead of just a
> dedicated box.
>
> This lets me get stuff from the internet, post it on the bridge machine and
> have the XP box get it.
>
> In a time case, you could set the bridge machine as your local time server
> and the XP box could synch to it.
>
> DaveH
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: time-nuts-
>> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On Behalf Of Esa Heikkinen
>> Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2014 02:37
>> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
>> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Setting Windows XP clock.
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> At first, Windows XP supports SNTP protocol (so it can be
>> synchronized
>> with NTP server, but not with "millisecond" grade accuracy)
>> and it uses
>> time.windows.com as default server. Maybe Microsoft is closed that
>> server or something, if it doesn't work anymore. However it's easy to
>> change the NTP server, like Ed Palmer alrady described.
>>
>> It's also possible to use local NTP server, I use Symmetricom/Datum
>> TymServe 2100 to synchronize the system cloks for all Windows
>> computers.
>> Works fine and does not need connection outside local network.
>>
>> Any Windows computer can also act as NTP server, if
>> "millisecond" grade
>> time is not needed. Registry change is needed to enable the
>> Windows NTP
>> server, Google if you want to do this. In addition, the
>> system running
>> as NTP server must also have working NTP client configuration
>> so that it
>> syncrhonizes itself. But remember, integrated Windows NTP is not very
>> accurate, the time may have even more than ten seconds offsets.
>>
>> > You do not want to have your XP box connected to the
>> internet at all.
>> > This is not something that can be dealt with by any
>> anti-virus software you
>> > are running.
>>
>> I even have Windows 2000 computer having 24/7 internet
>> connection. This
>> is a server computer running 24/7, doing certain tasks. Windows 2000
>> support is stopped many years ago and also there's not even
>> anti-virus
>> software compatible with Windows 2000 anymore. Sounds dangerous? Not
>> necessary - there has not been any trouble ever...
>>
>> The secret is that this (and all other computers) are behind NAT
>> firewall so there's no direct access to this (or other) Windows
>> computers. Second thing is (maybe most important), that this
>> computer is
>> NOT used for any web browsing or e-mails (which are most
>> common way to
>> infect any unprotected computer).
>>
>> By the way, XP support is not fully stopped yet, there's
>> still monthly
>> malware removal updates coming. Last one happened just few
>> days ago. We
>> still use XP for work (with anti-virus software of course)
>> and there's
>> never been any problems with it. Any suspicious traffic from local
>> network to the Internet will be noticed by network monitoring, but
>> there's haven't been any. XP is safe, if it's behing network firewall.
>>
>> One easy trick to keep any Windows computer safe is to use Jotti's
>> Malware Scan service before running any new .exe files
>> downloaded from
>> Internet:
>>
>> http://virusscan.jotti.org/
>>
>> This is an easy-to use online service, where you can send files for
>> scanning. It uses more than 20 anti-virus tools to scan the file and
>> reports the results from each tool. If the file is infected,
>> there will
>> be many alerts, even when the anti-virus software installed in own
>> computer doesn't give any alert.
>>
>> Connecting any Windows computer directly to the Internet
>> (without NAT or
>> nework firewall) or DMZ is not recommended at all, even if it
>> has most
>> recent Windows version. There will be always new and undetected
>> vulnerabilities. That's the reason why the Windows updates exists.
>>
>> --
>> 73s!
>> Esa
>> OH4KJU
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-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California