I have a client that uses Microsoft Home Server. The other day they called with the problem that one machine couldn’t connect to the server. We checked logins and passwords – nothing worked.

Every time we tried to login it said “bad login”. Then she noticed that somehow the date on her computer was wrong. She reset the date and then could login. The error message gave absolutely no indication that that was the problem.

A similar thing happens with Windows Media. I have a pc on our TV and we use Windows Media to record and play shows. Every once in a while we get a power outage. When the TV pc comes back the date is usually wrong. Yes, I know it’s the internal battery but I’ve just not wanted to stop and take it apart and change it.

We were away for a couple days not long ago and when I went to the TV I found nothing had recorded. I checked things out and there was nothing in the schedule. I tried to download a new set and it wouldn’t work. Checked this, checked that, everything seemed OK. Then I noticed the date was wrong. The power must have glitched. Reset the date and everybody was happy – the scheduled returned. So I guess now I change the battery.

And I do have it set to go out to the time server and update but for some reason it just doesn’t seem to want to do that.