Setting up Windows XP as an NTP Server
A network time server or NTP server (Network Time Protocol), is a central computer or server on a network that controls the time and synchronises all machines on that network to it.
Windows XP can be set up to operate as an NTP server to synchronise the rest of the computers and devices on a network. Setting up a Windows XP machine to act as a NTP server involves editing the registry, however, editing an operating system registry can lead to potential problems and should only be conducted by somebody with experience of registry editing.
To configure Windows XP as an NTP server the first thing to do is to open the registry editor in Windows. This is done by clicking the Start button and selecting “Run” from the menu. Enter “regedit” in the run menu and press return. This should open the Windows registry editor.
Select the: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\TimeProviders\NtpServer\ folder in the left hand pane. This folder holds the values for the NTP server.
Right-click the “Enabled” key in the right window pane and select “Properties”. This should open a dialog box where you can alter the value of the registry key. Enter “1” in the window, setting the value to “True” which turns the XP computer into a time server.
Close the registry and open the DOS command prompt by clicking the Windows Start button, selecting “Run”. Then type “cmd” in the text box and press return.
Type “Net stop w32time” into the command prompt and press “Enter.” Now type “net start w32time” this will restart the time server for Windows XP.
However, the XP machine, which is now set as a NTP server, will merely distribute the time it currently holds. If this time is inaccurate then it will inaccurate time that is distributed amongst the network.
To ensure an accurate and secure source of time is used then a dedicated NTP time server that receives the time from an atomic clock source should be used.
