Year 2000 Compliance

General

NetInfo uses time information for establishing elapsed (relative) and absolute times. An example of elapsed time would be the round-trip packet travel times for Ping and Trace. An example of absolute time would be the time differential reporting capabilities found on the Time tab.

Since NetInfo depends on the correct conversion and representation of absolute calendar time as provided by the WIN32 interface that exists in Windows NT and Windows 95/98, it inherits any benefits or problems found in the time handling functions of those operating systems. The operating system is also dependent on the underlying hardware, in particular, the effects of the computer BIOS and associated clock hardware post Dec. 31, 1999. For a full discussion of the Y2K compliance issues of the underlying Microsoft« Windows« operating systems (95/98/NT), please visit Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure & Resource Center.

Relative Time Calculation

All relative time calculations such as determining packet travel times for Ping are made without respect to the current date. The relative times are based on counters, which increment at millisecond resolution. The numbers used are based on system "uptime" and have no relation to absolute calendar time.

Absolute Time Calculation

Absolute calendar time is used for indicating the current time for printing and, in some instances, the time when a particular function is started. All years are presented to users in 4-digit format or in short date style.

User Interface Compliance: Printing

NetInfo prints a 4-digit year wherever an absolute date is represented.

Examples: 17-June-1998, 15-August-2001, etc.

Daytime Client Compliance

The daytime client is based on RFC 867, which defines the retrieval of an ASCII text string representation of the local time and date at a remote computer. NetInfo simply connects to the remote host, requests the current daytime from the host and then displays the text string verbatim. Other host generates the text displayed by NetInfo. Here is an example of the text generated by a Windows NT Daytime service:

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 15:44:00

Some systems report the time in this format:

14 APR 99 09:34:23 PST

Clearly, the second format violates year 2000 requirements, but the important thing to note in this example is that NetInfo did not generate the string nor did it attempt to alter the non-compliant date format, NetInfo only reports the text string exactly as sent to it by the other computer.

Time Client Compliance

Time works using an external Network Time Protocol server as a reference for establishing the exact absolute UTC time. The network protocol used is based on RFC 868 for 1-second resolution time establishment.

RFC 868 Time Differential and Synchronization are based on the simple connection by NetInfo to the Network Time Server's NTP port, then receiving a 4-byte packet, which represents the time relative to a fixed date. The time is the number of seconds since 00:00 (midnight) 1 Jan 1900 UTC. Since Windows makes calculations relative to 00:00 1 Jan 1970 UTC, a 70-year offset is accounted for. NetInfo then calculates, using standard Windows time functions, the actual time relative to your time zone. Time differences and corrections are calculated using your system time and the time reported by the Network Time Server. The 4 byte number will be sufficient to represent times until the year 2036, by which time the RFC 868 protocol will be superceded and made obsolete as will NetInfo.

Compliance Statement

NetInfo is designed to be compliant with the year 2000 date requirements if it is running on a year 2000 compliant operating system and hardware platform as defined by Microsoft's Y2K compliance web site.