I’m following article 816042 in attempting to synchronize my domain server
running Windows 2003 with an external time source. Under “Configuring the
Windows Time service to use an external time source� step five, the following
instructions are given:

5. Select the poll interval. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpClient\SpecialPollInte rval
b. In the right pane, right-click SpecialPollInterval, and then click
Modify.
c. In Edit DWORD Value, type TimeInSeconds in the Value data box, and then
click OK.

Note TimeInSeconds is a placeholder for the number of seconds that you want
between each poll. A recommended value is 900 Decimal. This value configures
the Time Server to poll every 15 minutes.


This cannot be correct! It is impossible to type “TimeInSeconds� in the
Value data box. I had to leave this unchanged and hope for the best.

In the future, I hope MS will make this simple matter of synchronizing with
an external time source a little simpler and one that doesn’t involve
multiple changes to the registry.

I'm responding to my own query. I see that you're not actually supposed to
insert the pharae "TimeInSeconds", which as the next sentence states is only
a place holder. So never mind.

Since we're on the subject, in the following steps, you're asked to insert a
value for MaxPosPhaseCorrection and MaxNegPhaseCorrection. For the poll
interval I chose 9600, and for these PhaseCorrections I choose 1800. My
choices were completely arbitrary. I also chose the NIST time server as the
external stratum 1 time source. Are there any potential problems with these
choices.

"rcir88" wrote: