This article explains how to force Windows XP to allow you to restart the Windows Time service in the Service control panel, in order to allow you to synchronise your computer time. To see the solution please skip to the solution, otherwise feel free to learn how I arrived at my discovery.
This week I've been working on a front end development project with an external company who use Dreamweaver to develop their websites. Being a bit of a purist myself I would never dream of using Dreamweaver to create a site (Homesite and Firefox for me!) but needs must when a client says jump.
Everything went smoothly until I needed to "Check In" my files to the live server via DW's FTP functionality. Every time I tried, it simply would not allow me to connect and upload my files, even though FileZilla could manage it perfectly. After much hunting I came across this sitepoint article which explained Windows Time not being in sync as a possible cause. Thinking I'd cracked it I went straight to Windows' Date and Time Properties -> Internet Time and clicked the "Update Now" button to manually synchronise my computer with the time.nist.gov website. Unfortunately I got a big ERROR - windows could not - it seemed - sync my time.
Having recently discovered the value of Windows "Services" control panel I suspected that I could restart the Windows Time service and possibly solve the issue. However, upon locating the service it provided no option to Start/Stop (i've not idea why this happens but it does). Luckily I was able to find a fix that forces Windows to allow you to Start/Stop the service again.
Just go to the "Run" command line (under the Start Menu) and type:
regsvr32 w32time.dll
Please note that this makes a change to your registery so please do this with caution! I'd advise you to create a system restore point before attempting this step at the very least.
This command should fix the issue and allow you to Restart the Windows Time service. As for the DW problem, I still can't figure it out - no wonder no one uses it! Let me know if this fix works for you.
UK Time
A simpler fix is often to just change the time server to 'uk.pool.ntp.org'.
Thanks but I tried that
@Tennant
Hi,
Thanks for your comment. I did in fact try that but it refused to work. In fact I tried numerous other time servers but windows "failed to connect" with them.
I'm not sure exactly what causes the issue I had (although I suspect networking problems) but I do know that that regedit fix sorted things.