Date Bug in Netgear DG834G Log Files

My Netgear DG834G sent me a log file this morning which it dated Fri, 1
Aug 2005. The entries in the log file are all fine (ie. report as Fri,
2005-07-01 etc.) so it looks like just the code for the mailheader the
is wrong.

I'm running firmware v2.10.17 on a v2 DG834G.

Can anyone running the latest firmware (v2.10.22) confirm whether this
is a problem with their router?

(incidentally, as well as the date not being accurate, it isn't even
logically correct - 1st Aug isn't a Friday this year!)

Thanks, David


David

"David" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42c50f76$0$2054$(E-Mail Removed)...
> My Netgear DG834G sent me a log file this morning which it dated Fri, 1
> Aug 2005. The entries in the log file are all fine (ie. report as Fri,
> 2005-07-01 etc.) so it looks like just the code for the mailheader the is
> wrong.
>
> I'm running firmware v2.10.17 on a v2 DG834G.
>
> Can anyone running the latest firmware (v2.10.22) confirm whether this is
> a problem with their router?
>
> (incidentally, as well as the date not being accurate, it isn't even
> logically correct - 1st Aug isn't a Friday this year!)

This is also the case with my DG834GT with firmware V1.01.28 (the latest).
To say that 30 June is followed immediately by 1 August is a real howler!

Netgear really do have problems with their dates and times in email headers.
In the firmware that the router was supplied with, the Date field was
missing from the email (I was amazed to find that Date is an *optional*
field in an email!), then in V1.01.28 it was present but the offset from GMT
was wrong during summer months. Quite why they need a "Adjust for Daylight
Savings Time" field is byond me: Windows has cracked the daylight savings
issue by hard-coding it with the rules on the changeover dates that are
associated with each time zone - if you say you live in Britain (GMT:
London, Edinburgh) it uses the standard changeover dates (last Sunday before
21 March and first Sunday after 21 October, I think). And the time is
correct in the logs so why is it wrong in the emails, I wonder?

On Fri, 01 Jul 2005 10:37:15 +0100, David <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> My Netgear DG834G sent me a log file this morning which it dated Fri, 1
> Aug 2005. The entries in the log file are all fine (ie. report as Fri,
> 2005-07-01 etc.) so it looks like just the code for the mailheader the
> is wrong.
>
> I'm running firmware v2.10.17 on a v2 DG834G.
>
> Can anyone running the latest firmware (v2.10.22) confirm whether this
> is a problem with their router?

Yes, it's the same with 2.10.22. I received messages with that same
incorrect date from six different DG834Gs.

I have no idea why Netgear added that Date: header line, they got both the
time of day (misses DST adjustments) and month name wrong and this header
is not even required by RFC. Mails from systems running 1.05.00 always
arrived with correct Date: lines for both time and month; the router
didn't put in any at all and so MTAs added correct ones.

Tony

"Anthony R. Gold" <not-for-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 01 Jul 2005 10:37:15 +0100, David <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


> I have no idea why Netgear added that Date: header line, they got both the
> time of day (misses DST adjustments) and month name wrong and this header
> is not even required by RFC. Mails from systems running 1.05.00 always
> arrived with correct Date: lines for both time and month; the router
> didn't put in any at all and so MTAs added correct ones.


Adding the Date line seems on the face of it to be a sensible idea (I wonder
why "Date" was not a compulsory field in the RFC?) because it is the one
date that *should* be correct, irrespective of any timezone or clock errors
in the intervening mail servers between sender and recipient. Also, it
probably makes more sense to record when the sender posted the email (ie
when it went into the outbox) rather than when it was received by the first
MTA in the chain (ie when the user later did a Send/Receive).

Looking back at the mails from the old firmware, the Date line was not added
by my ISP's mail server. Outlook Express did deduce a "sent date", but
presumably by examining the various "Received from xxx by yyy" lines as the
email hopped from one server to another. Is it in the RFC that an MTA should
add a Date line (synchonised to its own time) if one is not already present.
If so, mine isn't doing it.

Return-Path: <my address>
Delivered-To: my address
Received: (qmail 30341 invoked from network); 8 Apr 2005 17:25:36 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO ptb-mxcore01.plus.net) (212.159.14.215)
by ptb-mailstore04.plus.net with SMTP; 8 Apr 2005 17:25:36 -0000
Received: from ptb-relay02.plus.net ([212.159.14.213])
by ptb-mxcore01.plus.net with esmtp (Exim) id 1DJxIc-00078X-3a
for my address; Fri, 08 Apr 2005 18:29:42 +0100
Received: from [router's IP] (helo=unknown)
by ptb-relay02.plus.net with smtp (Exim) id 1DJxEd-0007SR-WC
for my address; Fri, 08 Apr 2005 17:25:36 +0000
From: my address
Subject: NETGEAR Security Log [03:04:05]
To: my address
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-NAS-Bayes: #0: 3.49051E-010; #1: 1
X-NAS-Classification: 0
X-NAS-MessageID: 5259
X-NAS-Validation: {EA35B401-4DA7-4A2E-A352-2E50E37EDD26}


Given that Netgear routers have a UNIX-like operating system, you'd think
that there's been plenty of development time for them to get the date/time
handling sorted out. Does UNIX have the same sort of daylight savings
algorithms as Windows or is it a bit more simplistic - eg it only knows
about the American changeover dates. It's nearly 10 years since I worked on
UNIX so I can't remember whether it changes over on the correct dates.

How much spread is there in the changeover dates around the world? Do most
countries that have daylight savings time change around the spring and
autumn equinoxes, or are the dates dependent on latitude?

In article <42c519e4$0$41913$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Martin Underwood <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> Windows has cracked the daylight savings issue by hard-coding it
> with the rules on the changeover dates that are associated with
> each time zone - if you say you live in Britain (GMT: London,
> Edinburgh) it uses the standard changeover dates (last Sunday
> before 21 March and first Sunday after 21 October, I think).

Actually the UK now just follows the European system of last
Sunday in March until last Sunday in October. Articles 2 & 3:

http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/eu.html

--
James Taylor, London, UK PGP key: 3FBE1BF9
To protect against spam, the address in the "From:" header is not valid.
In any case, you should reply to the group so that everyone can benefit.
If you must send me a private email, use james at oakseed demon co uk.

"James Taylor" <spam-block-@-SEE-MY-SIG.com> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In article <42c519e4$0$41913$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> Martin Underwood <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>> Windows has cracked the daylight savings issue by hard-coding it
>> with the rules on the changeover dates that are associated with
>> each time zone - if you say you live in Britain (GMT: London,
>> Edinburgh) it uses the standard changeover dates (last Sunday
>> before 21 March and first Sunday after 21 October, I think).
>
> Actually the UK now just follows the European system of last
> Sunday in March until last Sunday in October. Articles 2 & 3:
>
> http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/eu.html

I knew we followed the rest of the EU, but I thought it was the closest
Sunday to each equinox, which would have been a week or so earlier than the
last Sunday in March and October.

What dates do other countries around the world use? Are they all around the
same times of year?

"Martin Underwood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42c6a7b0$0$41932$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "James Taylor" <spam-block-@-SEE-MY-SIG.com> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> In article <42c519e4$0$41913$(E-Mail Removed)>,
>> Martin Underwood <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>>
>>> Windows has cracked the daylight savings issue by hard-coding it
>>> with the rules on the changeover dates that are associated with
>>> each time zone - if you say you live in Britain (GMT: London,
>>> Edinburgh) it uses the standard changeover dates (last Sunday
>>> before 21 March and first Sunday after 21 October, I think).
>>
>> Actually the UK now just follows the European system of last
>> Sunday in March until last Sunday in October. Articles 2 & 3:
>>
>> http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/eu.html
>
> I knew we followed the rest of the EU, but I thought it was the closest
> Sunday to each equinox, which would have been a week or so earlier than
> the last Sunday in March and October.
>
> What dates do other countries around the world use? Are they all around
> the same times of year?
>

try
http://www.worldtimezone.com/daylight.html

Lars