Did a colleague forward this newsletter? Please email me to join the list and receive your own copy. Time is Ticking... Is Your Company's Server Ready for the DST Event? We Can Help! Blog and Syndicated Articles Please visit the Technology Reflections Blog on the Web for new articles, explainers, and opinion. Here's a sampling of entries made this last month. Vista Doesn't Support Visual Studio 2005 Exploding CD-ROMS A Discussion on the Future of IT Departments Neolingo Neolingo will introduce you to important Internet vocabulary. In a world of mass layoffs, the employees that are usually kept around are the ones who can handle extra workloads and pick up the slack in a downsized organization. A Gold-Collar Worker is one who is an inherent multi-tasker, who has picked up advanced training and continuing education opportunities, and is too valuable to cut from the workforce. News and Announcements Mickler & Associates, Inc. welcomes it's new customer: Portland Metropolitan Youth Symphony Portland, OR   Dow Columbia, Inc. Portland, OR Bugs and Viruses Last month, I reported on the Trojan Horse Trojan.Peacomm; Peacomm is evolving and is still a threat level 3/5 at the Symantec Antivirus Research Center. In the spyware arena, Trojan-downloader.zlob.media-codec is making the rounds. What's interesting about this spyware is that it's disguised as an update to Windows Media Player. When the unsuspecting user double-clicks on the update, programs are installed on their computer that will allow someone else on the Internet to run programs on their computer. In effect, the computer is turned into a Zombie - executing instructions for its hacker master on the Internet! To avoid Zlob, make sure that you're only downloading upgrades to Media Player directly from Microsoft. Also, make sure your antispyware and antivirus solutions are up to date. Unsure about your antispyware status?  Better safe than sorry: Microsoft has a free tool that you can download to protect your Windows XP system called Windows Defender.  It's free, easy to install, and updates itself automatically via the Internet at night.  The protection afforded by Windows Defender is already built in to the Windows Vista product, so you don't need to download Defender if you're already running Vista.  And finally, if you haven't done so already, Windows Internet Explorer 7 has a number of built-in antispyware tools.  For the small office running Windows, Windows Defender and Internet Explorer 7 are free updates from Microsoft, and are a must for more secure computing on the Internet.   Learn more about the emerging virus threats from Instant Messaging Additional Resources for Technology and Business Professionals How to Address the DST Event Microsoft has released a comprehensive technical document for dealing with the extended Daylight Savings Time event happening over the March 11, 2007 weekend. This is a technical document and meant for system administrators, but it covers the step-by-step procedure for installing the necessary updates on server and client platforms.  A must-read for any tech-head responsible for Windows users. Ready.gov The Ready.gov site is an extension of the US Department of Homeland Security and provides useful tools, resources, and planning guides to address disaster recovery. The material is free, comprehensive, and downloadable. What's nice about the site is that it's not just geared for the small business but for the individual as well - how to plan for disaster situations with your family. Although Ready.gov can't offer a firm a strong Business Continuity Plan, it can offer advice and tools for getting started on the process of planning for disaster recovery. The Small Business Planner This is a set of useful tools and articles offered for free by the US Small Business Administration.  It allows a user to review a step-by-step process to setting up their business and means of securing financing from the SBA.  What's very clever about this self-service tool is that it's a great strategy on behalf of the SBA to get their customers up-to-speed on required documentation before talking to them. A good strategy that probably keeps phone calls at a minimum and increases the value of the SBA relationship.

Technology Reflections is a newsletter sponsored and prepared by Mickler & Associates, Inc. of Battle Ground, Washington.  The newsletter addresses the technology concerns of small business in every day lingo, and reflects on trends, issues, and tips to help your company gain competitive advantage from tech spend. Please feel free to distribute to colleagues and partners.

The DST Event of March 11, 2007

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changes the start and end dates of daylight savings time (DST) and goes into effect this week, March 11, 2007. The Windows operating system and Microsoft Outlook are vulnerable to this change; patches must be applied to maintain the consistency of appointments, calendar items, and recurring appointments. If the patches are not applied, then calendar items added to Outlook during the DST period will be interpreted incorrectly, reflecting appointment times of +/- 1 hour from the actual time they were scheduled.

The following platforms are affected:

• Windows XP Home and Professional

• Windows 2003 Server and Small Business Server

The following server applications are affected:

• Exchange Server 2003

• Exchange Server 5.x

The following client applications are affected:

• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002, 2000

• For those who're technical, the DST Event problem is an issue for *.pst as well as *.ost containers in Outlook

Generally speaking, if you have a systems administrator, you should seek clarification on your readiness for the DST event.  This is something that many IT shops have been gearing up for since the turn of the year.

If you do not have a systems administrator - if you are a small business, home, or consumer user who runs the affected products and do not use an Exchange Server, you should:

1. Apply updates to Windows by visiting update.microsoft.com. A complete listing of all downloadable hotifxes can be found here.

2. Then, if you use Microsoft Outlook 2000-2007 for calendaring and appointments, download and run the Time Update Tool.

These updates should be ran back-to-back. After updating Windows but before running the Time Update Tool, check out your current time zone configuration by double-clicking the system tray - the clock at the bottom right of your screen.

Make sure that your time zone is accurate before running the Time Update Tool, and that the checkbox "Automatically Adjust Clock..." is checked.

The tool is wizard-driven and fairly simple to follow and the screenshots illustrate why you need your check your time zone before starting. The option to "Move appointments" must be used only if you need to change your timezone in the previous step.  Otherwise, just use the default selection to update to reflect changes in Windows Timezones. Lastly, I'd also recommend unchecking the "Move meetings" checkbox - imagine a ton of email going to your contacts updating them on the new appointment times. 

If and when calendar items that need to be changed are found, the tool will tell you. Just press okay and the process will finish. You're done and updated.

If you do run an Exchange Server, your system administrators responsible for the Exchange Server need to follow an upgrade procedure to affect server, client, and web-based client configurations. More information can be found in the extended DST support document found in the Additional Resources Section of this newsletter, but these are changes that must be performed by your qualified systems admin.  For our customers where we manage your server, we've got you covered - unless advised otherwise, these updates will be applied to your servers during the day Saturday March 10, 2007.

The affects of the extended DST event won't be as pronounced as the dreaded Y2K event seven years ago but it could be material. The fact is we just don't know.  Most software products retrieve their time from the operating system, and if Windows is appropriately patched, there shouldn't be a problem.  But some software, just like Microsoft Outlook, may make certain decisions on time independent of the operating system, which could manifest in incorrect reporting on times and schedules. Unfortunately, these problems will manifest after the beginning of the extended event on March 11, 2007, so users should be on the look-out for incorrect times and schedules in their software - particularly if these times are off by +/- 1 hour.

Russell P. Mickler, CISSP | MCSE
Principal Consultant, Mickler & Associates, Inc.
360.600.9508 | rmickler@micklerandassociates.com