Milt <Milt@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote on Mon, 16 Apr 2007:

>Over the past month at least a few dozen people have posted this problem
>with time servers. Darn near every patch and update that Microsoft has ever
>issued has been suggested as a remedy. But I have yet to see a proper reason
>why the problem is occurring! Or a real "fix" for it.

Just read a post here:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=300915
that seems to explain the problem with time.windows.com:

>After looking at it in Wireshark, I think I see why. Time.windows.com
>is saying that its stratum is 0 (Unspecified or unavailable). A
>working time server (I synced to time-b.nist.gov) is stratum 1. This
>also may be of interest:
>
>Reference Clock ID: NULL
>Reference Clock Update Time: Feb 23, 2007 18:18:47.0627 UTC
>
>And this friendly little error, indicated in the flags byte of the NTP
>reply (don't see why Windows doesn't show this as the error rather than
>the one it does):
>
>11.. .... = Leap Indicator: alarm condition (clock not synchronized)
>(3)
>
>It should appear that time.windows.com is completely dead, no longer
>syncronizing with any reference clock. Yikes!

--
Nightowl