I'm not trying to sell Microshaft :) products here, but the default XP
method of syncing time is fine for anything we (amateur astronomers)
could possibly need it for and is as accurate as any other program for
synchronizing your pc. I have my XP time set to get updates from
"time.nist.gov" once a day. It is dead on accurate, as are ALL sites
that are linked to the government atomic clock system. I used to use
WinSNTP with Win98 for many years, but that program won't run under XP.
My point is: You really don't need to bother wasting any time or money
or memory on another time syncing program if you're already using XP.
On a similar subject, if you're looking for a simple way to make sure
your wrist watch time is accurate, I bought a new watch this spring at
Target. It's a Casio "Wave Captor" and it automatically syncs with a
government broadcast radio signal once a day (1:00am) and it is dead on
accurate too. It was under $40 out the door. I find it terribly handy
when I'm out at an observing site for a few days and I can manually
correct my pc's time drift without having to worry about having an
internet connection. When I'm tracking satellites, it really helps if
my pc's time is accurate within a second.
Clear Skies,
Jim
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: sf-bay-tac-bounces@No-Spam
[mailto:sf-bay-tac-bounces@No-Spam] On
> >Behalf Of Rob Hawley
> >Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 6:04 PM
> >To: The Astronomy Connection
> >Subject: RE: [TAC] PC time software
> >
> >> why screw around? run the 'real thing', NTP v4, same as the unix
servers
> >run...
> >
> >The PC Time function does use NTP. Is it accurate enough? If you
leave
> >your machine on all the time then it probably is OK. If you don't
then I
> >find the clock drifts. Since I run with an account that is not an
> >administrator (by choice) the XP function is not fully enabled.
> >
> >That is why I like the program I suggested. I happen to prefer a
different
> >timeserver.
> >
> >At this point we should take this off line.
> >
> >Rob Hawley
> >