TimeMachines, NTP Network Time Server with GPS, TM1000A, A GPS Antenna maintains current time broadcast by U.S. Satellites

As another reviewer noted, very easy to use. The folks who designed it thought it through. A decade ago, I managed a few computers for a small non-profit group and had some computer clocks 6-8 hours off. Back then not so easy to fix. Today, with Win XP, Vista or 7, Windows has an Internet Time option. Which is great if you are connected to the Internet when the update is scheduled. If not, no update. The TM1000A performs the same function, on a local basis. No Internet needed. Simple to set up. Place the antenna near a window, and the base unit near your computer. Plug in power. The local network connection can have several forms, depending on your particular configuration. (the manual, download from css-timemachines.com has far more info) The easiest is just a crossover cable (Amazon has several) between the computer and the TM1000A. Point your browser to 192.168.1.15 to connect, make any needed changes and you are ready to go. If your Internet is via USB modem (cable or DSL) you are done. Then, right click on the time in the lower right corner of the diplay, click on "Adjust Date/Time" select the Internet Time tab. In the Server field, enter 192.168.1.15 (if you didn't change it) and Update Now. In a few seconds, you should see a success message. Without any external connection.The unit will not work with Streets and Trips, there are other programs that will display satellite data, and can help with antenna placement. The 1000A can output the GPS 1 pulse per second for calibrating lab equipment. It has a wall power module, uses about 5 watts, so will cost about 10 cents a week to run, depending on your power company. It takes about 2 minutes to get initial "lock" on the satellites.

We purchased this to provide time synchronization for an air-gaped network and we regret the purchase. Even-tough our office is in located high up a tall building and the GPS antenna was installed directly in very wide and tall windows with direct unobstructed view of the sky, the time module is almost always unable to lock on satellite to provide the current time despite being seemingly able to receive signal from 2 to 4 satellite most of the time. We tried to contact support thinking it was a defect with something, but they were quick to tell us there's nothing they can do and it is working as it should. We unfortunately had to cut our losses and removed it from our network as it was causing more problems than it solved and we reverted to using one of our offline server as our NTP server since giving better result.

This thing is exactly what I was looking for in an NTP appliance. Easy setup, great compatibility, incredible accuracy, small footprint, and appliance level of reliability. We attached the magnetic antenna to the metal frame of one of our skylights, so it has a direct line of sight toward the South. So far, we have not had any issues, and W32time, SNTP, and NTP (unicast) clients of all flavors work just fine using standard configurations. I recommend this product to anyone who wants a cost-effective, turn-key time syncing solution!

I purchased this as a NTP server for over a dozen windows 10 systems that needed to have the current local time synced between them due to the simple neglect over a long period of time. All of them over the past few years have had multiple makeshift time servers that they pointed to. It ended up being over 30 different machines spread across multiple sites. Some of the systems they pointed to were either not there anymore or they simply had the wrong time primarily due to those systems also having been pointed to another and another and another and so forth. That system is fine when you have a small number of systems with each pushing or pulling off one another to make sure every clock was the same but when you need to make sure every single system is playing in the same field regardless of location you need a more elegant approach. You have 3 choices. Either set aside a machine already in the network and make it your primary NTP server (if you can spare the machine and if its OK to have on 24/7 with no issues. The next choice is to build or purchase a new system and dedicate that as your new NTP server. the last option is going the commercial route with the multiple choices out there today. The catch with all these is that you want to try and get a NTP server that does not rely on internet time, a server that takes up as little space as possible when space is a premium, a server that can stay on 24/7 with little or no supervision and finally a server that can can be modified to fit any network to suit any need. All but one was met by the device I am writing about now.Whats wrong with this product (for me anyways) is that fact anyone who purchases this product MUST be aware that when they speak of GPS time they really mean UTC time. For those not familiar with UT (UT1 or UTC) time I will explain with this brief definition: There are several versions of it, the most common one used is whats known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). All versions (UT1) except for UTC, are based on the Earth's rotation relative to distant celestial objects, but with a scaling factor and other adjustments to make them closer to true solar time. UTC (The time used by this product) is based on International Atomic Time, with leap seconds added to keep it within 0.9 second of UT1.The most important part of knowing that this device uses UTC is the fact that IT IS THE ONLY WAY this device can sync time. The problem there is that UTC time is HOURS off of anything we consider as "Local" time. They use UTC because it will be the same across the entire world no matter where you go. UTC time is the same here as it is in lets say China or France or South America. This is helpful when you have servers talking to other servers talking to other servers within there own little bubble. But when you are trying to sync time with simple windows host machines where individuals are using these machines as anything from scheduling, to finance, to call centers or just simple personal documentation creation and storage then you have a problem. Windows can sync time with anything and once pointed at a device that you have told it to get time from it does exactly that. The time it receives is then set as its primary default clock showing on everything and anything with the system showing that time as the current time in every program or application being used. When this happens you either add another clock to view (Windows can show multiple clocks at once as it was meant to show current time in other time zones in case you needed to know the current local time anywhere in the world) and tell the user to disregard everything that tells them the current time and pay attention to the added timezone clock (which is only for reference as windows will always use the NTP server time as its primary time) or We can have it just use internet time or pull from another machine that uses internet time which in the end defeats the entire purpose of using a NTP server that doesn't rely on the internet in the first place.You cannot adjust, change, modify or switch to anything that will give you any version of local time anywhere in the world even though the satellites used have the ability to do so. Even if they did not all this product had to do was give the simple option to "adjust" the UTC time + or - what is needed to get your current local time. I have seen far more expensive NTP servers do the simple math to simply adjust the current output + or - to whatever the user specifies. In fact ANY options to modify or change anything of importance would have been good but they obviously feel that you paying 300 dollars is not enough to have there machine do what basically breaks down to a simple basic math problem to simply add or take away from any time in any timezone in any country on this planet. What is sad is I have a magnetic calculator attached to my fridge that can do what this system cannot and frankly if you pay 300 dollars for something to basically "look at there watch" you better be able to do more than just that.