Time Synchronisation (Windows XP)

[koster]

On one PC, with Windows XP Home, under date and Time Properties I have "Internet Time", and the option to automatically synchronise with an Internet Time Server. On another PC, with Windows XP Professional, I don't have the "Internet Time" tab.

Is this a difference between Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional?

If a PC is part of a network and is synchronising it's time with the network server, is there a way to override this (from the PC, not from the server)?

[Ralph]

I'm guessing that the XP Pro machine is at your office. If an XP Pro computer is attached to a domain, the time is syncronised from the domain controller (network server). There is no way to override this because having a syncronised time across the network is essential to kerberos security (network authentication stuff).

The main difference between Home & Pro is that a Home computer cannot be connected to a domain, which also means it has most of it's advanced networking capabilities cut out, but you're unlikely to need them anyway in a home environment.

[koster]

Thanks.

You're right, the XP Pro machine is at work. Every time I switch it on, the clock is 9 minutes out. I do actually rely on having the right time there in the corner.

I downloaded a freeware time sync program from the Internet which works fine, I can click on "Ping" and I have the right time.

Based on what you wrote about Kerberos security, that might not have been a great idea. Can you explain that a bit more?