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How To Fix NTPClient Syncronization Errors - Event ID 29, 38, 47

Working on a server yesterday, I noticed the following error in Event Viewer:

"The time provider NtpClient is configured to acquire time from one or more time sources, however none of the sources are currently accessible. No attempt to contact a source will be made for 15 minutes. NtpClient has no source of accurate time. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://support.microsoft.com."

You might experience errors like the following, as well:

"Time Provider NtpClient: No valid response has been received from manually configured peer IPAddressoftheNTPServer after 8 attempts to contact it. This peer will be discarded as a time source and NtpClient will attempt to discover a new peer with this DNS name. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://support.microsoft.com."

or

"The time provider NtpClient cannot reach or is currently receiving invalid time data from NTP_server_IP_Address. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://support.microsoft.com."

Here is how to fix it:

-Ensure that your firewall is not filtering UDP port 123.

-Open a command prompt as an administrator (either login as Administrator and goto Run --> type cmd or right click on the Command Prompt application from the Start menu and selectRun asAdministrator)

-Issue these commands one at a time:

>w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:IPAddressorHostnameoftheNTPServer,0x8 /syncfromflags:MANUAL
>net stop w32time
>net start w32time
>w32tm /resync

-Upon success, you will see the following item written to Event Viewer:

"The time provider NtpClient is currently receiving valid time data from IPAddressoftheNTPServer (ntp.m|0x8|IPAddressofthelocalServertowhichNTPClientisbound:123->IPAddressoftheNTPServer:123)"

In the commands above, you will obviously want to replace IPAddressorHostnameoftheNTPServer with the IP address of a functioning NTP server. This will vary depending on your configuration. Typically in an Active Directory deployment, the Domain Controller is used. For workgroup based computers, its preferable to use Microsoft's: time.windows.com. If for whatever reason that isnt an option, use one of the Stratum Two Time Servers listed at the Network Time Protocol Project.

This article can be referenced with Microsoft KB article 875424.