external meeting time incorrect? 1

[falinxcopernicus]

Hi everyone,

I know this sounds like it has nothing to do with exchange but it does. Whenever any of our users send a meeting request externally the meeting request is 1 hour behind the actual requested meeting time. If they send it to any user internally it is fine. Thought it might be the client but I even installed outlook on the server directly and made sure that the correct time zone in the OS and in outlook was set correctly... but alas, the same thing happened. Now I can't for the life of me figure out why this is and I have checked the exchange settings but can't find anything to do with time in it. If anyone has any ideas they would be greatly appreciated. PS it is Exchange 2000 on a small business server installation (2k as well obviously), both with SP3.

 

[Zelandakh]

it is definitely a time zone issue. Check time zone AND daylight saving time settings on server and client.

 

[falinxcopernicus]

Thanks Zelandakh, but it definitely is not a time zone issue. Standard e-mails coming through the server have the correct timestamp even the received times of "meeting schedules" are correct. It's just the actual appointment which is incorrect and I have tried from several clients and the server itself. I really don't know what to do... and the country I live in (South africa) does not have a daylight savings change during the year.

 

[rtichnor]

You may not have a 'Daylight Savings' time adjustment where you live, but perhaps one of the client PC's involved has that option flagged as 'on'. I would check all client PC's involved. I've had this happen many times, and each time it was because of 'Daylight Savings' being selected on the client PC's.

 

[falinxcopernicus]

Guys thank you very much for your help but as stated in my first and second posts, I have tried multiple clients all with the correct time zone settings, even installed office on the server with the correct time zone setting and yet it still does this. I found out something interesting yesterday though, if I use outlook via a webpage on the server and send a request externally the time is right. Now one would then assume if has to be the client, but there are only three immediately obvious places where the time could possibly be altered on the machine... outlook(tools/options/preferences/calender/timezone), the windows machine(control panel/date and time/timezone), and then obviously the bios(bios specific time adjustment). On all the machines I have tried these are exactly correct, and set to the same time zone as the receiving machine. Still the same problem. So now I'm really confused!!

 

[Zelandakh]

Owa will use the server time. Outlook uses the client time. So the server is ok, I think.

Bizarre. Shall give it some thought.

Have you tried Windows 2000 SP4 on the server and all windows updates? Also post SP3 hotfixes for Exchange. They don't mention time, but you never know.

 

[rtichnor]

ok, I'll tell you what I do in situations like this.

I have to warn you, that what I am going to tell you will probably get me yelled at by a couple of the 'regulars' here (lander215,marcs41 just to name a couple).

I open up Windows Explorer, open the 'M' drive, I copy the record that I want to examine, paste it to an area that is far away from my e-mail server, then I open the file in Outlook Express, Click on 'File' then 'Properties', look at the 'header' and see where the time goes 'out of whack'. This would give me an idea where the offending system is.

You need to be ultra, super-duper, freaking careful if you go near the 'M' drive.

If anyone knows of a better way to look at the header information in an appointment, please let us know. I don't know what I'll do when we move to Exchange2003.

 

[falinxcopernicus]

Hi guys, so I did what rtichnor said and I found this when I looked at the source in outlook express from a message that was a test a few days ago for a meeting at 12pm...

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:Microsoft CDO for Microsoft Exchange
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Jerusalem
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-TZID:27
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:16010101T000000
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
END:STANDARD
BEGINAYLIGHT
DTSTART:16010101T000000
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
ENDAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20050411T095100Z
DTSTART;TZID="Jerusalem":20050411T120000
SUMMARY:Testing 12

Like I said I live in South africa and all the time zones have been set as such on the receiving clients (multiple ones have been tested, ie outlook xp, outlook 2000, outlook 2003) and on the sending clients (believe you me, I have checked every client to make 100% sure). Yet here on the e-mail source it is stating jerusalem. Now, when I sent a request for 5pm today through the http based exchange the source showed the following...

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:Microsoft CDO for Microsoft Exchange
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Harare\, Pretoria
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-TZID:50
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:16010101T000000
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
END:STANDARD
BEGINAYLIGHT
DTSTART:16010101T000000
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
ENDAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20050414T092216Z
DTSTART;TZID="Harare, Pretoria":20050414T170000
SUMMARY:test for 5pm

and obviously everything works perfectly. Now I know immediately you will say "well there you go, it's your outlook, set the time correctly dumbass" ... But I can't stress this enough, I have!!! I even set the outlook (one on server for testing is outlook xp with sp3) to jerusalem (who by the way don't have daylight savings time restrictions either) and the time was still wrong by one hour. So this has to be a bug with way Small business server 2000 is handling these appointments or outlook will just never set the timezone to harare, pretoria no matter what I do. I even went looking for jerusalem in the registry (I know my geography sucks ) and I only found one instance, and that's amongst all the other time settings just as a description, so it's not a registry setting that is being changed. Ooh, I think I'm going to have a serious "sense of humour failure session" with a microsoft employee!!!

 

[falinxcopernicus]

OMS it would seem I have found something relating to the issue which is more than likely the problem. it's the server on the receiving side that is the issue. I made the silly mistake of hearing from the user "any external domain" when really what they should have said is only one domain that they have tried. So I kept trying to send these appointments to the "problem" domain (our own extenal domain) with multiple combinations of clients sending and receiving, and not to any other domain as a test... which I tried today. Even though these timezones are up the pole, it would seem that our external domain has a exchange 5.5 bridgehead server which is actually causing the problem...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=812392

...

In this article microsoft describes it as being an owa problem but in my case the outlook client that is experiencing the issues; but this is the closest thing to an explanation that I can find. Silly me, I tried these external requests to another domain and they worked fine, which is what I should've done in the first place but didn't... why why why do I keep listening to users

Anywayz, yet another problem that exchange 5.5 is experiencing and microsoft is overlooking so that you upgrade your software. I know it mentions there is a fix that can be downloaded but I have had 2 issues with minor bugs on the exchange 5.5 servers before and microsoft's recommended fixes never work. We are moving away from exchange server 5.5 soon so the users will just have to live with the problem until we move on... linux is looking like a strong possbility...

Thanks for all your help guys, I made a huge noob mistake by actually listening to a user... don't worry, it won't happen again

 

[falinxcopernicus]

okay looks like the problem has reared it's ugly head again. The bridgehead server was not the issue. hmmmm will have to keep pondering this one again.

 

[rtichnor]

Was it actually working properly at all?

 

[falinxcopernicus]

not sure but the final conclusion to this whole palava for anyone who is experiencing the same issue as me is that the server needed the much understated rollup service pack... ie f**king microsoft couldn't just call it sp4 no they had to go and confuse the whole issue and call it something else. All that time wasted if they had just continued calling them service packs with no additional terms. f**king a$$wipes... I really have lost my rag on this one, but there you go, problem resolved.

Unfortunately now, we have an "exciting" new issue with one of the users when he accepts an appointment it doesn't create it in his calender... could very well be related to this...we'll see.

 

[rtichnor]

omfg.

At least that's over with.

Good Luck with the 'appointment' issue.