You might be wondering exactly what the repercussions are of having the wrong time set on your Windows Server machine, and most people would say "Well probably nothing serious". As it turns out there are some serious problems that may occur:

  • In Office and Out of Office Hours - Since 3CX Phone System offers Office hours scheduling to the user along with automatic switch to Away / Out of Office statuses, and other functionality that depends on time, not having correct time sync adversely affects this functionality. 3CX Phone System will perform these functions based on the time it receives from Windows. If the Windows time is wrongly configured  then you might find yourself wondering why your extensions go to Away / Out of Office status 2 hours earlier than they should.
  • Queue Agent Log In and Log Out - 3CX Phone System allows automatic Log in or Log out of users based on their Office Hours settings. Having the correct time sync is crucial since this option uses the 'Log out from queues when not available/out of office' which in turn depends on specific hours that the Administrator sets for the extensions.
  • Installation and SSL Certificates - If the time is set incorrectly, installation certificates and / or SSL certificates might not be identified correctly which will create issues with the smooth running of 3CX Phone System on your Windows machine.
  • HTTP Client - HTTP Clients might have connection issues if time is not synced correctly.
  • Call History Problems - This issue is to be expected since Call History is based on the correct time set. When time is not synced correctly Call History does not work correctly.

Setting your Windows Server Time Correctly

In order to set the time correctly in Windows do the following:
Click on the Time and date on the notification area of your taskbar so that you can configure your time settings for your Windows machine

  1. Click on the time and settings in the task-bar's notification area to bring up the time and settings panel as shown above. Then click on Change date and time settings.
    Click on 'Change time zone' so that you can configure your time zone settings for your Windows machine
  2. When you see the Date and Time tab click on Change time zone in the  Time Zone section.
    This image shows you how to Select the correct zone for your location and enable daylight saving changes for your Windows machine
  3. Select the correct zone for your location by clicking on the list under the Time zone: field, and make sure that the check box Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time is checked. This will automatically update your time according to the daylight saving changes in your time zone. Press OK to save and set.
  4. Return to the Date and Time tab. Click on the Change date and time button.
    Set your Time and Date for your Windows machine
  5. Select the correct time (type it in the time box under the analog clock image) and date (click on the desired date from the calendar shown). Press OK when done.
  6. After that select the Internet Time tab and click on Change Settings.

    To synchronize your Windows machine with an internet time server enable the checkbox and select the internet time server that you want to synchronize with. Then click on 'Update now' to synchronize
  7. Make sure that the check-box Synchronize with an Internet time Server is enabled and select a server from the drop down list under the 'Server:' field. After you have selected the time server click on 'Update now' and you should see a message indicating that the clock was successfully synchronized as shown above. Click OK to return to the Date and time settings.
  8. You have now set your correct time and date for your Windows machine. This procedure will ensure that your Windows time is set correctly and that all daylight saving updates are applied correctly for your zone which will save you from a lot of problems as we will see further on.

Additional Troubleshooting

If you have already tried the procedure described in the Setting the Windows time correctly and your time is not set correctly then you should consider the following possibilities:

  • The onboard Real Time Clock of the machine is faulty.
  • The motherboard battery needs replacing since it has lost its charge and cannot keep the time up to date on your motherboard.
  • Faulty power supply (exceedingly rare).
  • If the image was restored from another machine there might be an incompatible 'Hal.dll' file as a result of the CPU being different than the machine that the image was taken from. In this case you need to reinstall the operating system on the machine.