Client WIndows time changed and Ticket get lost

Dear my Friends
Since quite a while I am struggling with this strange behavior my 3 ACER Tabs (Iconia W1-810-wifi) with WINDOWS (8.1) they all randomly change their Windows Time and Date DURING the running work-shift, which has the terrible effect, that all tickets booked then, with a false time-stamp, get “lost” from that work-shift, are not reported, … and I must rely on the honesty my staff to report on the “extra money” they have in the cashier.

This happen when ever and to all of my 3 pads, I tried what I can do eg:, update windows, switched off or on the automatic time adjustment from Internet servers. change the time servers, use only manual time setting… and HOWEVER the my staff is user with NO Admin rights, they cant change ANYTHING.!!! the stupid Pads change “them self” the Windows time/date (sometimes only 6 or 2 hours back, up to 2 days past).

My question, How can be, that SAMBA not recognize that a logged-in client is out of the server time? Should it possible to have a kind of security rule, that all clients must have same time, as server database!?

I mean, not only when I login in SAMBA, but also during running process…

Thank you for your help!

Yours sincerely, The Factory 47

It’s not that the are lost; its that they are not reported on work period report which is from/to the start end date of the period.
It’s nothing to do with server time as in fact server time would have no effect as it it ticket and order time which is messing up reports and that is set on client machines.
This is not a sambapos issue its a user/config issue.
Most software would use system time and potentially have issue if changed.

Windows does not randomly change time or date. Someone is changing it. Find our who it is and slap them with a carp.

If windows randomly changed time then all of the world would cease to exist and we would be forced to live under ground eating grubs and playing checkers.

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WTF… someone been fishing this weekend:stuck_out_tongue:

Lol sorry it was a bad reference to MIRC relay chat client back in the day of Dialup and Chat rooms.

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Well, thats why I wrote “lost”, sure I can pick them up some how, but thats not the sense of the system…

Still not answer my question… was WHY Samba not recognize if some of the Clients (PADS) is out of time?

I see this is a SERIOUS security issue (anyway who and why someone or WIndows change time)

Same when you try to logIN with different time, system blocks you, It should not be possible or allowed that this clients stays connected, if they out of Server Time? At least should get a MESSAGE on the Screen!?

Can this be fixed?

Cheers F47

Samba recognizes when the client time is different from the server. It gives you a message popup when you login. Maybe they’re ignoring it.

I had this issue and emre put the feature in for sure.

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Yep this feature was already put in. As soon as 1 time is different on any machine at the very beginning samba tells you there is a difference in time between the systems and database which will cause issues.

only on login, but not during running workshift… thats my current problem

There are windows policies that can disable a person’s ability to change system clock. You should look into that. Also you should let your staff know they can never mess with the system time.

Do you really want sambapos to stop working completely if your staff changes system clock? Would you tell customers sorry we can’t take orders or payment?

I did already EVERYTHING… I can do on the Windows side…add an special user account for ONLY use my staff and ME is the ONLY PERSON in the shop who have password for Admin to change ANYTHING on system…and is very strange to my too, but anyway , IT HAPPENS and not only one time, but quite often :((

I dont want SAMBA stops…if ONE PAD is out of time, but I would appreciate to get a POP UP Message on THAT PAD, so my staff see it and stop using that PAD (we have several)… if they stay on using that PAD, the tickets are in the past and not counted for that workshift…

Someone is changing system time. You should stop that behavior. What if they change time again after getting a new pad and then all your pads are out of sync? Windows does not change time randomly. Someone is doing it.

No you didn’t do everything because there are system policies you can use that prevent system time changes. But if it’s admin doing it then not much can do about it.

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I think we should be able to do something with Automation.

Maybe something like Order Added event we compare {ORDER DATE} with {DATE} ? I’m wondering if the Order Date is “sent from the Tablet” while {DATE} might possibly be Server Date/Time?

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Actually it could be an issue with the Acer Iconia tab on windows 8.1. It’s not your model but a quick search on Google brings up this (there are probably more results too)

There were a couple things mentioned there you can try including a patch from Microsoft.

The fact it happens on every tablet and they are all same model I would be inclined to look at it being a hardware issue. Failing that like others said it must be a user issue. User without admin rights shouldn’t be able to change time, but even you have all staff as non-admin, are you sure they don’t know the admin password?

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yup, 100% sure, even IF they would have… wouldnt it be smarter, change time BACK after cheating and not report to me? But my staff, in the moment they aware, they stop using the PAD and report to me

So I think you should check out the link I posted above and also search Google for other issues people have been having related to time changing on these tablets. It looks to me like it is definitely a hardware issue. If you purchased them all at the same time it might be a faulty batch.

Alternatively, you could also consider upgrading to Windows 10 and see if the problem goes away? The info I saw online was all related to Windows 8.1 on these tablets. You may not be aware but you can still legally upgrade to Windows 10 for free, even Microsoft have stopped promoting the free upgrade, read more here

Maybe you can try upgrading one of the tablets first and see if the problem goes away.

I have done it myself a couple months ago on both a Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1 Home system, both upgraded perfectly.

As with any upgrades, please ensure you take a full backup of your system before attempting an upgrade. You can use the free AOMEI Backupper Standard tool to do a full disk backup:

http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html

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To illustrate the issue , I did it yesterday manual… ^^

I am logged in with 1 PAD in a running workshift, yesterday 05 July, afternoon around 16.00 local time:

Then I change the time, 1 day and some hours in the past, to the 04th of July:

I come back to SAMBA and have different time and date:

And can use the POS as usual, order and settle tables:

What I WISH, would be a message SAME pops up If I log.IN with the wrong time:

Would be awesome :slight_smile:

And, yes its very likely that this is a problem of ACER, but in here (Vietnam), I cant buy easy other WINDOWS-PADs, simply not exists on the local market and sure would be a bit expensive replace all 4 PADS).

Moreover… I think to have that security gadget, would be interesting, ANYWAY where the time-problem derives from…, huh!?

I will try :persevere: the update to WIN 10, but like I said, in GENERAL, I think its should not be possible to change times on running clients without get any message…

It comes from either hardware or a person changing it. SambaPOS doesn’t mess with windows time. Maybe try some of what QMcKay said with the automation.

I will do some tests see what we can figure out. Maybe we can do some automation to accomplish this.

EDIT: Quick glance at it looks like we have these printer tags to work with.

DATE:X Date of Day with Format
SERVER DATE:X Date of Day with Format

So that is good. We can probably run some automation to check DATE against SERVER DATE. I will do some quick tests.

So here is what I have so far:

Result:

Will have to wait until tomorrow to really test it. My server is also the client tonight so the times will always match. When I am at the restaurant I can test this. It seems to be working though I just need to test changing time on client then running it. If these tags do work then we can automate a popup.

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Something like this should work:

It checks if times match on server and local machine when order added to ticket… if they do not match it executes show message popup and then cancels orders.

Show message syntax:

There is system time difference between server and local computers.\r\rLocal Time:\r{DATE:M/d/yyyy hh:mm:ss}\r\rServer Time:\r{SERVER DATE:M/d/yyyy hh:mm:ss}

Result pretty much mimics the default popup.

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