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I'm trying to configure a Windows XP NTP client to authenticate to a local NTP server on our closed network. How can I make this happen?

One article I've found for configuring the client to talk to a remote server is: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314054. I would also appreciate if someone could verify if the 2nd part (configuring the windows time service to use an external time source) is what I'm looking for as far as configuring the WinXP client goes.

As far as authentication goes, something similar that we did on our routers/switches is:

RouterOne(config)#ntp authenticate
RouterOne(config)#ntp authentication-key 11 md5 MyKey
RouterOne(config)#ntp trusted-key 11
RouterOne(config)#ntp server 130.218.59.4 key 11

Is a domain environment required?

Kenny Rasschaert
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Erik
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1 Answers1

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Windows clients can't do this as they use SNTP rather than full NTP. They can, however, use Kerberos for authentication when part of a domain and getting time from a local Windows server.

You could try something like the Meinberg NTP client as this is a proper NTP client.

James O'Gorman
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  • So just to be clear: windows clients cannot authenticate to NTP by default in a non-domain environment because they are using SNTP, rather than the full NTP suite. They can only do it unauthenticated? – Erik Dec 07 '11 at 12:25
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    Correct. SNTP is only a limited subset of NTP and the Windows implementation doesn't really provide much in the way of configuration. I use the Meinberg client for machines that need greater accuracy and specific configuration settings. – James O'Gorman Dec 07 '11 at 12:29