Frequently Asked Questions

1. What exactly is 'freebusy' information anyway?
   In simple terms, freebusy (or free/busy) is published information that contains your availability based on the schedule in your calendar client (such as MS Outlook or Apple iCal). Your calendar client can be configured to publish this information to services like ifreebusy.com so that others can see your availability. freebusy information only contains the blocks of time that you are busy; it does not contain any other details about your calendar events.
   
   
2. Why would I need to convert between freebusy and other calendar formats?
   At the present time, MS Outlook 2003 is only capable of publishing/consuming calendar freebusy information (actually, a free 3rd party plugin, RemoteCalendars, is available to publish/subscribe to icalendar files), while most other calendar clients (including Outlook 2007) can publish and consume complete calendar information. ifreebusy.com allows a basic measure of interopability between the clients; MS Outlook 2003 users can view complete calendar information as freebusy data, and other calendar clients can view freebusy information as if it were full calendar data. In addition, you may wish to publish your calendar to the site so that others can see the times you are busy, without letting them know exactly what you are doing during those times. Finally, the site can simply be used to host and share calendars with other users.
   
   
3. I've forgotten my password.
   Use the password reminder.
   
   
4. Outlook 2003 is not refreshing my freebusy information on the server.
   By default, Outlook only publishes freebusy information every 20 minutes. You can force a refresh by selecting the Send/Receive menu and selecting the Freebusy option. If Outlook still is not publishing, close Outlook and start it from the command line with 'outlook.exe /cleanfreebusy' (you will have to do this from the directory where Outlook is installed).
   
   
5. Why are there two methods for authenticating when publishing via Outlook 2003?
   We support two methods of authentication when publishing calendars, HTTP basic and authtoken. Most calendar clients use HTTP basic authentication (i.e. where you specify your username and password in the publish calendar settings) without problem. Outlook 2003 has problems with this method so we provide an alternate method, authtoken. When using the authtoken method, an authentication key is specified at the end of the publish location, e.g. http://ifreebusy.com/username/work.vfb?authtoken=xxxxxx (replace 'xxxxxx' with your token found in the Account section). Treat your authentication token as you would treat your password. Outlook 2007 does not require nor work with the authtoken method, it only uses basic authentication with our service.
   
   
6. I don't want my appointment in Outlook to show up in my freebusy data
   Set the appointment's 'Show Time As' property to 'Free', and others will not see your appointment as busy time.
   
   
7. How do I view my calendar or freebusy information in a different timezone?
   Log into the account section and set your default timezone.
   
   
8. Do you plan on charging for using the site?
   While I reserve the right to change my mind (with lots of warning, of course, to current users), I have no plans to charge for its use with the current feature set.
   
   
9. Can I View a Calendar File on ifreebusy.com Within Google Calendar?
   Yes! Follow these steps:
   1. find the URL for your calendar in ifreebusy.com, i.e. http://ifreebusy.com/username/work.ics
   2. in the Account section of ifreebusy.com, find your authentication token. You can append this to the end of your calendar URL so that Google has authenticated access to your calendar. The URL you use will look something like this: http://ifreebusy.com/username/work.ics?authtoken=xxxxxxx
   3. in Google Calendar, go to the Manage Calendars page, select the 'Add calendar' button, and then the 'Public Calendar Access' tab. In the Public Calendar Address, use the URL from above, replacing the 'http' with 'webcal' so that the final URL looks like: webcal://ifreebusy.com/username/work.ics?authtoken=xxxxxxx
   
   
   
10. How do I delete my account?
    Send an email to support@ifreebusy.com and I will delete your account.
    
    

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