Get Internet Date/Time

**Tom van Stiphout** · Mar 16 '06, 04:35 AM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:47:09 GMT, "rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om"
<u6836@uwe> wrote:

Check with the MSFT knowledge base:

Error - Office.com

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;172831

-Tom.

[color=blue]
>Is there a way to get the internet date/time. I saw an article that uses
>WinSock, but WinSock doesn't seem to be available in Access.
>
>I want to verify that the date/time on the local PC running my application is
>correct, so I was hoping I could get the Internet date/time. I understand
>that there is a NTP protocol to do this.
>
>Thanks.[/color]

**rdemyan via AccessMonster.com** · Mar 16 '06, 04:55 AM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

Thanks for the link, but I don't understand how I can incorporate this into
my Access application.

Tom van Stiphout wrote:[color=blue]
>Check with the MSFT knowledge base:
>http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;172831
>
>-Tom.
>[color=green]
>>Is there a way to get the internet date/time. I saw an article that uses
>>WinSock, but WinSock doesn't seem to be available in Access.[/color]
>[quoted text clipped - 4 lines][color=green]
>>
>>Thanks.[/color][/color]

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**John Mishefske** · Mar 16 '06, 05:55 AM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om wrote:[color=blue]
> Thanks for the link, but I don't understand how I can incorporate this into
> my Access application.[/color]

Generally you don't; its implemented at the operating system level. Check out
the W32Time service. The Microsoft KnowledgeBase surely has some docs on this.

--
'---------------
'John Mishefske
'---------------

**rdemyan via AccessMonster.com** · Mar 16 '06, 03:05 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

I tried to find the W32Time.exe on my computer (running Windows XP home
edition) and couldn't. Since I want to use the "Internet Time" for
verification purposes for my trial versions, I can't count on prospective
users installing W32Time.exe if they don't have it. Further, some of my
potential clients work for companies that have "locked down" PCs (no
executables, no zip file attachments to e-mails,etc.).

John Mishefske wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>> Thanks for the link, but I don't understand how I can incorporate this into
>> my Access application.[/color]
>
>Generally you don't; its implemented at the operating system level. Check out
>the W32Time service. The Microsoft KnowledgeBase surely has some docs on this.
>[/color]

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**Anthony England** · Mar 16 '06, 03:25 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

"rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om" <u6836@uwe> wrote in message
news:5d5836e81b d67@uwe...[color=blue]
>I tried to find the W32Time.exe on my computer (running Windows XP home
> edition) and couldn't. Since I want to use the "Internet Time" for
> verification purposes for my trial versions, I can't count on prospective
> users installing W32Time.exe if they don't have it. Further, some of my
> potential clients work for companies that have "locked down" PCs (no
> executables, no zip file attachments to e-mails,etc.).[/color]

But they will let the users install your program which will automatically
try to connect across the internet to carry out a task which is actually for
your benefit? Could they even tell what it was doing - to back up your
claim that it was only checking the time?
I would go another route to securing you trial version - like putting a
maximum limit on the number of times the database gets opened.

**rdemyan via AccessMonster.com** · Mar 16 '06, 04:35 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

Yes, I've considered this. But all you have to do is reinstall the trial
version to get around it. There's other tricks like creating a text file the
first time the app starts up which prevents subsequent reinstallation and so
on.

Still, I'm really surprised that this is so difficult. My planned approach
is to hardcode a start date in my app and then provide around 30 days or so
of use. The number of prospective trial users is relatively small, so this
is not a burden. By checking the "Internet time" that would prevent users
from setting the clock back. I think this could work quite well, but
without a means of getting the internet time, it becomes difficult.

Anthony England wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>>I tried to find the W32Time.exe on my computer (running Windows XP home
>> edition) and couldn't. Since I want to use the "Internet Time" for
>> verification purposes for my trial versions, I can't count on prospective
>> users installing W32Time.exe if they don't have it. Further, some of my
>> potential clients work for companies that have "locked down" PCs (no
>> executables, no zip file attachments to e-mails,etc.).[/color]
>
>But they will let the users install your program which will automatically
>try to connect across the internet to carry out a task which is actually for
>your benefit? Could they even tell what it was doing - to back up your
>claim that it was only checking the time?
>I would go another route to securing you trial version - like putting a
>maximum limit on the number of times the database gets opened.[/color]

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**Lyle Fairfield** · Mar 16 '06, 04:55 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

Your application is so valuable that users will reset their system time
to be able to use it. Woohoo!

You might be able to thwart these evil-doers on modern machines with

Private Declare Function IsUserAnAdmin Lib "shell32" () As Long

Public Sub SyncTime()
If IsUserAnAdmin Then
Shell "w32tm /config /syncfromflags:m anual
/manualpeerlist: time.nist.gov"
Shell "w32tm /config /update"
Else
MsgBox "You do not have required rights.", vbExclamation,
"Cannot Synchronise Time"
End If
End Sub

which will un-reset their system time.

Of course, it's unethical to mess with users' systems but it's just
"bringing justice to them"!

Uh huh!

**Rick Brandt** · Mar 16 '06, 05:15 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om wrote:[color=blue]
> Yes, I've considered this. But all you have to do is reinstall the
> trial version to get around it. There's other tricks like creating a
> text file the first time the app starts up which prevents subsequent
> reinstallation and so on.
>
> Still, I'm really surprised that this is so difficult. My planned
> approach is to hardcode a start date in my app and then provide
> around 30 days or so of use. The number of prospective trial users
> is relatively small, so this is not a burden. By checking the
> "Internet time" that would prevent users from setting the clock back.
> I think this could work quite well, but without a means of getting
> the internet time, it becomes difficult.[/color]

Possible solution....

Record the System DateTime EVERY time the app starts and store in a table.
Use the first one to establish the beginning of the trial period and if you
ever see a System DateTime that is prior to one previously captured then you
know they've set their clock back and you can still disable the app. You'd
need to allow for reverting to standard time in the fall, but that would
simply be a matter of allowing changes of an hour or so, but nothing larger.

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**rdemyan via AccessMonster.com** · Mar 16 '06, 05:35 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

Thanks, Rick.

Yes, this is my backup plan. However, if someone reinstalls the trial on a
PC where the date has been set back, then I think this technique won't stop
that. Getting the internet time would.

Again, I'm just surprised at how difficult it is to get the Internet time. I
might monkey around with Lyle's suggestion, but I don't want to reset the
clock, I just want to get the Internet time and compare it to the PC clock so
I can abort opening the app if needed.

Rick Brandt wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>> Yes, I've considered this. But all you have to do is reinstall the
>> trial version to get around it. There's other tricks like creating a[/color]
>[quoted text clipped - 8 lines][color=green]
>> I think this could work quite well, but without a means of getting
>> the internet time, it becomes difficult.[/color]
>
>Possible solution....
>
>Record the System DateTime EVERY time the app starts and store in a table.
>Use the first one to establish the beginning of the trial period and if you
>ever see a System DateTime that is prior to one previously captured then you
>know they've set their clock back and you can still disable the app. You'd
>need to allow for reverting to standard time in the fall, but that would
>simply be a matter of allowing changes of an hour or so, but nothing larger.
>[/color]

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**Rick Brandt** · Mar 16 '06, 07:18 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om wrote:[color=blue]
> Thanks, Rick.
>
> Yes, this is my backup plan. However, if someone reinstalls the
> trial on a PC where the date has been set back, then I think this
> technique won't stop that. Getting the internet time would.
>
> Again, I'm just surprised at how difficult it is to get the Internet
> time. I might monkey around with Lyle's suggestion, but I don't want
> to reset the clock, I just want to get the Internet time and compare
> it to the PC clock so I can abort opening the app if needed.[/color]

Do you have access to a web server? A few of my apps have a security
feature in that before they can be used you have to run a "Security Wizard".
This sends an HTTP request to a java servlet I run on our web server and
sends to it an account number which is then authenticated on the server and
then a "SUCCESS" message is returned. The users must do this every time
they install on a new PC. In your case the web app could just return the
DateTime on the web server.

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**rdemyan via AccessMonster.com** · Mar 16 '06, 07:35 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

Yeah, I've been wondering about this. Unfortunately, I am not very
knowledgable about the web.

My small company does have our website hosted by a webhosting company. I was
wondering if I couldn't somehow use their webserver (although it is a shared
webserver and not dedicated for us) to provide the date/time.

Any thoughts on that or suggestions?

Rick Brandt wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>> Thanks, Rick.
>>[/color]
>[quoted text clipped - 6 lines][color=green]
>> to reset the clock, I just want to get the Internet time and compare
>> it to the PC clock so I can abort opening the app if needed.[/color]
>
>Do you have access to a web server? A few of my apps have a security
>feature in that before they can be used you have to run a "Security Wizard".
>This sends an HTTP request to a java servlet I run on our web server and
>sends to it an account number which is then authenticated on the server and
>then a "SUCCESS" message is returned. The users must do this every time
>they install on a new PC. In your case the web app could just return the
>DateTime on the web server.
>[/color]

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**Rick Brandt** · Mar 16 '06, 08:45 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om wrote:[color=blue]
> Yeah, I've been wondering about this. Unfortunately, I am not very
> knowledgable about the web.
>
> My small company does have our website hosted by a webhosting
> company. I was wondering if I couldn't somehow use their webserver
> (although it is a shared webserver and not dedicated for us) to
> provide the date/time.
>
> Any thoughts on that or suggestions?[/color]

Well basically if you can find any publicly available web service that
serves the current time then you could make an HTTP request to that service.
All that would be left would be to figure out how to parse the response.

This example retrieves the date and (central) time from www.time.gov. At
least it does for me. I make no guarantees whether it will work or not
because I am using a VERY crude method to pull the time and date out of the
HTTP Response. If I were doing this for a real app I suppose some sort of
regular expression could be used as a more reliable method to pull the data
out of the resposne text.

Function GetOfficialUSTi me() As Boolean

On Error GoTo ErrHandler

Dim RetVal As Variant
Dim MyURL As String
Dim tim As String
Dim dat As String
Dim timStart As Integer
Dim datStart As Integer
Dim datEnd As Integer
Dim oHttpTest As Object

Set oHttpTest = CreateObject("M icrosoft.XMLHTT P")
MyURL = "http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Ce ntral/d/-6"
oHttpTest.Open "POST", MyURL, False
oHttpTest.Send

If CLng(oHttpTest. Status) < 300 Then 'Response is OK
datStart = InStr(oHttpTest .responseText, "<td align=" & Chr(34) &
"center" & Chr(34) & ">") + 116
datEnd = InStr(datStart, oHttpTest.respo nseText, " ")
timStart = InStr(oHttpTest .responseText, "<td align=" & Chr(34) &
"center" & Chr(34) & ">") + 51

tim = Mid(oHttpTest.r esponseText, timStart, 8)
dat = Mid(oHttpTest.r esponseText, datStart, datEnd - datStart)
MsgBox "Time = " & tim & vbCrLf & "Date = " & dat
Else
RetVal = MsgBox("Status Code: " & oHttpTest.Statu s & vbCrLf & _
"Status Text: " & oHttpTest.statu sText & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Unexpected Response From Server" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
"Press 'OK' To See Full Response in Web Browser",
vbExclamation + vbOKCancel, "Unexpected Server Error")
If RetVal = vbOK Then
If Dir("C:\HTTP_ER R.HTM") <> "" Then Kill "C:\HTTP_ERR.HT M"
Open "C:\HTTP_ERR.HT M" For Output As #1
Print #1, oHttpTest.respo nseText
Close #1
Application.Fol lowHyperlink "C:\HTTP_ERR.HT M"
End If
End If

Egress:
Set oHttpTest = Nothing
Exit Function

ErrHandler:
MsgBox Err.Description
Resume Egress
End Function

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**rdemyan via AccessMonster.com** · Mar 16 '06, 09:45 PM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

Thanks, Rick.

I'll give it a try and report back on how it worked. I'll also try
substituting the NIST and Naval Observatory urls to see what happens.

Rick Brandt wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>> Yeah, I've been wondering about this. Unfortunately, I am not very
>> knowledgable about the web.[/color]
>[quoted text clipped - 5 lines][color=green]
>>
>> Any thoughts on that or suggestions?[/color]
>
>Well basically if you can find any publicly available web service that
>serves the current time then you could make an HTTP request to that service.
>All that would be left would be to figure out how to parse the response.
>
>This example retrieves the date and (central) time from www.time.gov. At
>least it does for me. I make no guarantees whether it will work or not
>because I am using a VERY crude method to pull the time and date out of the
>HTTP Response. If I were doing this for a real app I suppose some sort of
>regular expression could be used as a more reliable method to pull the data
>out of the resposne text.
>
>Function GetOfficialUSTi me() As Boolean
>
>On Error GoTo ErrHandler
>
>Dim RetVal As Variant
>Dim MyURL As String
>Dim tim As String
>Dim dat As String
>Dim timStart As Integer
>Dim datStart As Integer
>Dim datEnd As Integer
>Dim oHttpTest As Object
>
>Set oHttpTest = CreateObject("M icrosoft.XMLHTT P")
>MyURL = "http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Ce ntral/d/-6"
>oHttpTest.Op en "POST", MyURL, False
>oHttpTest.Se nd
>
>If CLng(oHttpTest. Status) < 300 Then 'Response is OK
> datStart = InStr(oHttpTest .responseText, "<td align=" & Chr(34) &
>"center" & Chr(34) & ">Chr(34) & "white" & Chr(34) & ">") + 116
> datEnd = InStr(datStart, oHttpTest.respo nseText, " ")
> timStart = InStr(oHttpTest .responseText, "<td align=" & Chr(34) &
>"center" & Chr(34) & ">Chr(34) & "white" & Chr(34) & ">") + 51
>
> tim = Mid(oHttpTest.r esponseText, timStart, 8)
> dat = Mid(oHttpTest.r esponseText, datStart, datEnd - datStart)
> MsgBox "Time = " & tim & vbCrLf & "Date = " & dat
>Else
> RetVal = MsgBox("Status Code: " & oHttpTest.Statu s & vbCrLf & _
> "Status Text: " & oHttpTest.statu sText & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
> "Unexpected Response From Server" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
> "Press 'OK' To See Full Response in Web Browser",
>vbExclamatio n + vbOKCancel, "Unexpected Server Error")
> If RetVal = vbOK Then
> If Dir("C:\HTTP_ER R.HTM") <> "" Then Kill "C:\HTTP_ERR.HT M"
> Open "C:\HTTP_ERR.HT M" For Output As #1
> Print #1, oHttpTest.respo nseText
> Close #1
> Application.Fol lowHyperlink "C:\HTTP_ERR.HT M"
> End If
>End If
>
>Egress:
> Set oHttpTest = Nothing
>Exit Function
>
>ErrHandler:
> MsgBox Err.Description
> Resume Egress
>End Function
>[/color]

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**Rick Brandt** · Mar 17 '06, 12:08 AM

Re: Get Internet Date/Time

rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om wrote:[color=blue]
> Thanks, Rick.
>
> I'll give it a try and report back on how it worked. I'll also try
> substituting the NIST and Naval Observatory urls to see what happens.[/color]

The naval observatory's time service actually sends back a much smaller respose
that would be easier to parse. It also just gives you several time zones in one
request rather than having you specify.

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Get Internet Date/Time

Get Internet Date/Time

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