SoftCom Corporate Blog

Daylight Saving Time gives us the opportunity to enjoy sunny summer evenings by moving our clocks an hour forward in the spring.

Yet the implementation of Daylight Saving Time has been fraught with controversy since Benjamin Franklin first conceived of the idea. Even today, regions and countries routinely change their approaches to Daylight Saving Time.

On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. Canada has also decided to adopt these changes.

For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona. The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.

In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.

Source: http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html

How this may affect our customers

Whether you live, work or do business with people in North America, these changes may affect your Outlook and Calendar data. We have been following this change for sometime and have made sure that all of our servers have been updated with the relevant patches. If you are a mail2web.com exchange email customer, particularly using a mobile device with your account, please refer to the information below:

According to Microsoft’s website:

If you use Windows Vista or have Automatic Updates turned on, you may not be affected by the change in daylight saving time. If you want to confirm, follow the steps in the Daylight Saving Time Update Guide on the Microsoft website.

For Windows Mobile-powered devices Users

Congress has changed the dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United States starting in 2007. Canada has adopted similar DST dates. These changes could cause clocks and Microsoft Outlook calendar appointments on Windows Mobile-powered devices to display incorrect times for March 11 – April 1, 2007 and October 28 – November 4, 2007 and again in subsequent years. You can find more information about the exact dates and potential impact in the Changes in DST section.

You can prevent these problems by installing three Microsoft files on your device and/or PC:

• Microsoft Windows Operating Systems Update
• Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update Tool
• Outlook Time Zone Update Tool

For all the details click here

For BlackBerry Users

The standard dates for North American Daylight Saving Time (DST) change in March 2007. The device clocks in your BlackBerry® device will NOT update automatically when the DST date changes. Click here to learn more and to update your device now.

Unless patches are applied for impacted BlackBerry software and third party software (eg: for Microsoft® Windows click here) BlackBerry device clocks will not update to the new time zones when DST dates change. As a result, your BlackBerry device may not display correct time zone information

• Between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in April (for example, 11 March 2007 to 1 April 2007)
• Between the last Sunday in October and the first Sunday in November (for example, 28 October 2007 to 4 November 2007)

For Calendar Users

The events in your calendar may also need to be updated for this change.

Calendar items are created in Outlook by using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format. UTC is an international standard 24-hour timekeeping system. Time zone information for Outlook is obtained from the Windows operating system in which the calendar items are created and is obtained at the time that the calendar items are created.

For example, an 8:00 A.M. appointment on March 1, 2007 in Redmond, Washington is stored in Outlook as UTC 4:00 P.M. In this case, DST has not yet started, and Redmond time is eight hours behind UTC.

When an update is applied to the Windows operating system to accommodate the new DST definitions, the computer’s local time is changed to the extended DST time. However, the UTC is not adjusted when the local time on the computer is adjusted. Therefore, calendar items that are added to Outlook during the extended DST period are off by one hour.

For Outlook users there is a Time Zone Update tool to assist you with correcting the time of your appointments. For more information about Outlook and the changes to DST click here.

How to manually update calendar items

The Time Zone Data Update Tool is intended to automate the update process. However, users do not have to run the tool in order to update their calendar items. You can manually correct the times on these items during the extended DST period. This may be a good strategy for users who meet these specific requirements:

• The users have recurring items that have exceptions before the extended DST period, and the past exceptions must be saved.
• The users have many items in the extended DST period that were created by using DST 2006 rules, and have other items that were created by using DST 2007 rules.
• The users want to maintain complete control over every item that must be changed in the extended DST period.
• The users have run the Time Zone Data Update Tool. However, the tool did not update a given item that the users now want to update manually.
• This also applies to users who only access there calendar from the OWA such as mail2web LIVE and Personal users.

To manually change your calendar, follow these steps:

1. Print a copy of your calendar during the extended DST period for reference.
2. Manually move meetings that you organized to the correct time.
3. Send an update for the meeting that you moved to all attendees so that the attendees’ calendar reflects the correct time.
4. Manually move all single-instance appointments.
5. Manually move all recurring appointments within the extended DST period. If you are prompted, move only the occurrence(s) that fall in the extended DST period. The instances that occur before and after the DST period should already reflect the correct time.

Thanks,

Stephen Nichols
Marketing Manager
SoftCom Technology Consulting Inc.