Why are my servers clock out of sync?

Question

The domain time is now out of sync by 4 mins and its getting on my nerves, I ran a quick check to see if I could determine how much it was out by exactly and got this back:

H:\>w32tm /stripchart /computer:time.windows.com /samples:5 /dataonly
Tracking time.windows.com [65.55.56.112:123].
Collecting 5 samples.
The current time is 31/08/2011 09:46:29.
09:46:29, error: 0x800705B4
09:46:32, error: 0x800705B4
09:46:35, error: 0x800705B4
09:46:38, -241.8117870s
09:46:40, error: 0x800705B4

I get the impression that packets are being dropped, but have no idea how to determine where the packets are getting dropped. Our internet connection is a good high speed network where we don't notice any issues. Could this be an IPv6 thing where its trying that first?

Answer 1

The errors are because the query is timing out. Try querying time.nist.gov, or pool.ntp.org instead of time.windows.com. Or look on http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/ to select a time server near your location