The system cannot log you on due to the following error: There is a time difference between the Client and Server. Please try again or consult your system administrator.

Cannot Log On If Time and Date Are Not Synchronized (kb232386)

When you attempt to log on to the network, you may receive the following error message:


The system cannot log you on due to the following error: There is a time difference between the Client and Server. Please try again or consult your system administrator.

Cause: This behaviour can occur if the time or date is not synchronized between your computer and the domain to which you are attempting to log on. If the client computer's time or date is not synchronized with the authenticating domain controller. Kerberos validation doesn not succeed. This occurs because of the variation in the time stamps between the AS_Req and AS_Reply between the client and server. Because Kerberos is the only form of logon authentication between two Windows 2000-based computers, the login does not succeed.


Resolution: To resolve this issue, log on to your computer locally using an account with administrative privileges and set the time and date to match the time and date on the domain controller(DC) that validates your logon. Below is list of steps that can be used to synchronize the time.


Click Start, Run
Type in CMD and click OK
At the command prompt type something similar to the following: NET TIME /DOMAIN:name /SET


Where "name" is the domain name being used by the computer. If you are not certain what the domain name should be replace name with "%userdomain%" without quotes.

Ref: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232386