I have symlinked my timezone to /etc/localtime using "ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST /etc/localtime". However, my time is not being configured properly. My system time (checked using the date command), reports a time 5 hours behind that which it should be. My bios is set to localtime, and time is reported correctly through the bios and through my Win2k dual boot. Grepping the /etc/init.d/clock file properly reports that localtime is being used. I think this must be due to some sort of misconfiguration in the startup scripts, although I am unable to determine what the cause is. I installed from the 1.0 RC6 r16 ix86 iso and built the system from source.
Do you have the correct UTC setting in /etc/rc.conf?
