Daylight Saving Time: How to Patch Your Network Today

Follow these guidelines to keep your business running smoothly.

The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, passed by the U.S. Congress July, 2005, extended Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the U.S. by approximately four weeks, starting in 2007. As such, Daylight Saving Time in the United States and Canada will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November). All computer systems and electronics will have to be updated to reflect this change; otherwise their time will not be accurate. Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts March 11th this year.

For operating systems, updating Daylight Saving Time is not always an automatic process.

Microsoft:

• The new DST rules will be released as an Automatic Update for Windows XP SP2 and Vista systems
• Updates will NOT be released for Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP1 and earlier systems. There are patches available for these applications, but they are “unsupported” from Microsoft.
• For additional information, refer to: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst

• For Exchange 2003, there is a Exchange calendar update tool found at: KB930879
• There is a manual solution for Exchange 2000 that involves modifying the registry of the server.
• Exchange 5.5 is NOT supported at all and has no patches available.

Novell:

• A patch for Novell systems is available: http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/2974702.htm

Macintosh:

• OS 10.4 updates can be found at:
  http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1048comboupdateppc.html
  http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1048comboupdateintel.html
  http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxserver1048comboupdateppc.html
  http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosxserver1048updateuniversal.html
• OS 10.3 and earlier: No official patch out yet

Linux:

• Updates are available for all of the major platforms, either as a patch or as a manual process http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/wiki/DST_Time_Change_Issues
  http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_80_7909.shtm

Patching Order:

When you begin patching systems for the changes to Daylight Saving Time, please patch systems in the following order

1. Patch the workstations first
2. Patch your Front End systems (OWA, IIS, Webservers)
3. Patch your Back End systems (Mail, SQL, GP)
1. If you have it clustered, patch the passive node first, then failover
4. If you have Bridgehead Servers, patch them also to keep everything in line
5. For Blackberry, Goodlink, Treo, Palm or other mobile solutions, talk with the vendor, but these solutions will also require that your local mail server be patched properly

If you are a multi-national company, patching systems will be a difficult task, as procedures will have to be modified to ensure that the changes you make don’t impact users that are unaffected by DST changes in their location. We suggest contacting All Covered for assistance in this area.

 

Recommendations for Users:

1. When organizing a meeting during the extended DST period, type the correct meeting time and time zone in the subject or body of the message (for example, Project planning meeting at 8 AM, ET).
2. Review any appointments within the extended DST period for inaccurancies (March 11-April 1).
3. Meeting organizers should be asked to verify the times themselves and with invitees.

How All Covered Can Help

If this is an issue for your business, All Covered provides Microsoft and Windows Vista consulting and services for small businesses nationwide.

• Call us: For a personal consultation, call our friendly sales team at 866-446-1133
• Email us: Use our contact form and we'll contact you within one business day.
• Free Newsletters: Use our Free IT Newsletters about IT issues facing small business
• Our services: All Covered Care
  Premium Coverage for Complete Network Management and Computer Support
• Learn more: Microsoft Windows Vista for Small Business
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