Mail Archives: djgpp/1998/11/06/20:02:09
This is an automatically generated message. You should
get this message only once. (Unless you change your From: line,
which is saved for one month to weed out duplicate messages.)
This message does NOT mean you need to repost your message.
You are getting this message because you posted to Usenet
an article with an implausible Date:. The Message-ID of this article
is <3643A849 DOT E0251928 AT gmx DOT net> .
The message was posted to the following newsgroup(s) and Subject:
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: RHIDE, Debug and long long ints
This article was posted with a Date: header of:
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 1998 00:54:17 -0100
which converted to GMT is Sat Nov 7 1:54:17 GMT 1998
However, it arrived on this system on Sat Nov 7 0:23:29 GMT 1998
which is EARLIER than the posted date by 1.51 hours.
In other words, the article said it was posted 1.51 hours
AFTER it got here.
This could mean one of several things:
1. Your system's timezone information is set wrong. Look at the Date:
line above. There is a number or timezone indication at the end.
(for example, -0800 is US/Pacific time) This date should reflect the
local timezone, or at least the timezone offset for the time portion
of the Date above.
2. Your system clock is set wrong (less likely). (Check AM/PM?)
3. Your system's timezone and clock is correct, but your news software is
configured incorrectly. (it either doesn't get the timezone correctly
from the system, or didn't convert it to a correctly formatted date)
4. Your operating system is configured to correct for daylight savings
and it shouldn't, or vice versa.
What can you do?
That depends on your system, and what the problem is. I suggest
forwarding this message to your local support staff, news administrator,
or system administrator. They should be able to help you diagnose and
correct the problem. Here are some common situations:
DOS/Windows 3.x, or 16-bit programs under Windows 95: If you are using
a PC-based newsreader, first check your own environment. PC clocks
often do not automatically adapt to daylight savings time. You may
need to configure this manually. Many PC software packages default to
PST (US/Pacific) timezone, and need to be adjusted if you live
elsewhere. You should also check the timezone configuration in your
newsreader *as well as* in your operating system (if it has any such
method) For example in DOS/Windows you add a "SET TZ=" statement in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT. For a good description on how to do this, see
http://www.ufaq.org/navcom/settz.html
or
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/settz.html
For Windows 95, Microsoft NT, and MacOS, there is support for timezone
identification in the operating system, which is settable by a control
panel. Native applications should understand how to access this
information. If you're running 16-bit Windows programs they probably
won't - upgrade to the 32-bit version if you can.
Be aware that if you try to diagnose the problem you may be confounded
by news readers which automatically converts Date: headers when viewing
articles. You may post an article and the date looks perfecty correct,
but that is because the software converted it back to what it thinks
is the local timezone. Often the only way to see the true Date header
as it is on the news system is to save the article to a file and view
the file contents with a file viewer/editor.
NOTE to those NOT located in the following US timezones: PST, PDT,
MST, CST, CDT, EST, EDT. The standard for Usenet messages (RFC 1036) and
the standard for Internet email messages (RFC 822) specify that only
these timezones NAMES may be used in Date: headers. If your software
is generating a Date: header with a timezone name not in this list
(or GMT), then it's non-compliant. The use of all timezone names
have been deprecated in favor of numeric offsets. (+1100, -0500, etc)
Why should you care?
1. It is likely that if the Date header is incorrect in your Usenet
postings that it will also be incorrect in your email messages too.
(especially if you use the same software for news and email)
2. It can be confusing to people who read your posts or your email.
News readers usually sort articles by date (some mail readers can too).
If this date is wrong, then the sorting will be wrong. Articles may
be read out of their normal chronological sequence, even if your
newsreader performs threading.
3. Lots of statistics generated by Usenet sites relies on the Date:
header to provide a fairly accurate representation of the time the
article was posted. If this time is wrong, the statistics can be wrong
by as much as nearly a day!.
This program
It's possible that due to an incorrectly formatted or forged From: address
you are getting this message in error. I apologize if this is the case.
This program has been run off and on every few months for about two years
now. The intent is not only to raise public awareness about this
problem, but to put pressure on software companies who write programs
and operating systems which don't understand simple long-understood
concepts like timezones. This program is run from a computer which
is synchronized with universal time via NTP, and is always within
milliseconds of the correct time. Please don't bother emailing saying
my clock is wrong. It is not. Please reply to the address
below. I apologize that this mail is in english. Unfortunately there
is no standard for determining the language of a person's Usenet post.
For more information, including references to a list of programs to
set your clock automatically via the Internet, see:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/timezone.html
Thanks. David Barr <timezone-warner AT cis DOT ohio-state DOT edu>
Sysadmin/News admin/Postmaster
v3.3
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