I have a red hat 7.3 file server running samba and mysql for my windows network. Is it possible to set this machine up as a time server as well, and if so, how?

Thanks in advance,
Chris

Yep, anything is possible with Linux =). www.ntp.org is the website. Basically you get it to check the time at another server (using ntpdate), and then get your other computers to set their time to that. There is a How-to on this at http://geodsoft.com/howto/timesync/unixinstall.htm

You'll need to install NTP, config the /etc/ntp.conf, run ntpdate to set the time, then start the ntpd service to keep the time in check and serve time to your network. There are a number of simple programs to use on the Windows computers to check against your server.

Go to << www.ntp.org >> for more info.

I added "Time Server = Yes" in the global properties of my samba config file. I then created a batch file on a shared directory with "NET TIME \\mysqlserver /SET /YES". I then added a shedualed task to each of the windows machines to run the batch file on startup and everyday at 5am. This works a treat.

Now I just want to know if I could use the "internet time" setting in XP to read the time from the server instead of the batch file. I tried putting the server name, IP address and netbios address in the server box, but none of them worked. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Chris

If you use Samba as a PDC then you can include the NET TIME stuff in the logon.bat file.

Otherwise what you need is xntp to set up your linux machine as a NTP time server so that you can then use the XP internet time functionality.