In C#, how do I query a remote server for its current time?
Similar functionality to
net time \\servername
but returning a datestamp that includes seconds.
Thanks
In C#, how do I query a remote server for its current time?
Similar functionality to
net time \\servername
but returning a datestamp that includes seconds.
Thanks
Windows Time Service implements NTP. Here is a C# implementation of an NTP client. A Windows GUI using it can be found at Simple Network Time Protocol Client. It's by Valer Bocan.
You can use the NetRemoteTOD function.
An example from http://bytes.com/groups/net-c/246234-netremotetod-usage:
// The pointer.
IntPtr pintBuffer = IntPtr.Zero;
// Get the time of day.
int pintError = NetRemoteTOD(@"\\sony_laptop", ref pintBuffer);
// Get the structure.
TIME_OF_DAY_INFO pobjInfo = (TIME_OF_DAY_INFO)
Marshal.PtrToStructure(pintBuffer, typeof(TIME_OF_DAY_INFO));
// Free the buffer.
NetApiBufferFree(pintBuffer);
You can try getting the daytime on port 13:
System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient t = new System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient ("yourmachineHOST", 13);
System.IO.StreamReader rd = new System.IO.StreamReader (t.GetStream ());
Console.WriteLine (rd.ReadToEnd ());
rd.Close();
t.Close();
Using the C# NTP client in Reed Copsey (& David Laing) answer, you can get a time "now" stamp (in ms) from a domain controller / NTP server using:
InternetTime.SNTPClient sntp = new InternetTime.SNTPClient("ntp1.ja.net");
sntp.Connect(false); // true to update local client clock
DateTime dt = sntp.DestinationTimestamp.AddMilliseconds(sntp.LocalClockOffset);
string timeStampNow = dt.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss.fff");
Simple Network Time Protocol Client
If you have access to the filesystem of the remote system with a UNC path (like \\remotehost\foo\bar
; for instance using Windows Explorer), you can retrieve remote datetime, even if it's not a Windows system, with following workaround. Create a dummy file, read it's write time and throw it away. It works also for local host.
public DateTime filesystemDateTime(string path)
{
//create temp file
string tempFilePath = Path.Combine(path, "lampo.tmp");
using (File.Create(tempFilePath)) { }
//read creation time and use it as current source filesystem datetime
DateTime dt = new FileInfo(tempFilePath).LastWriteTime;
//delete temp file
File.Delete(tempFilePath);
return dt;
}
class RemoteSystemTime
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
string machineName = "vista-pc";
System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
proc.StartInfo.FileName = "net";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = @"time \\" + machineName;
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
List<string> results = new List<string>();
while (!proc.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
{
string currentline = proc.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(currentline))
{
results.Add(currentline);
}
}
string currentTime = string.Empty;
if (results.Count > 0 && results[0].ToLower().StartsWith(@"current time at \\" + machineName.ToLower() + " is "))
{
currentTime = results[0].Substring((@"current time at \\" + machineName.ToLower() + " is ").Length);
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Parse(currentTime));
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
Below is a more complete implementation.
Usage: DateTime? now = RemoteTOD.GetNow(@"\\ServerName");
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
//https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/api/lmremutl/nf-lmremutl-netremotetod
public static class RemoteTOD {
// Important: CharSet must be Unicode otherwise error 2184 is returned
[DllImport("netapi32.dll", SetLastError=true, CharSet=CharSet.Unicode)]
private static extern int NetRemoteTOD(String UncServerName, ref IntPtr BufferPtr);
[DllImport("netapi32.dll")]
private static extern void NetApiBufferFree(IntPtr bufptr);
public static DateTime? GetNow(String serverName, bool throwException = false) {
IntPtr ptrBuffer = IntPtr.Zero;
int result = NetRemoteTOD(serverName, ref ptrBuffer);
if (result != 0) {
if (throwException)
throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
return null;
}
TIME_OF_DAY_INFO tod = (TIME_OF_DAY_INFO) Marshal.PtrToStructure(ptrBuffer, typeof(TIME_OF_DAY_INFO));
NetApiBufferFree(ptrBuffer); // must be freed using NetApiBufferFree according to the documentation
//DateTime d0 = new DateTime(1970,1,1);
//d0 = d0.AddSeconds(tod.elapsedt);
DateTime nowUtc = new DateTime(tod.year, tod.month, tod.day, tod.hour, tod.minute, tod.second, 10 * tod.hunds);
DateTime now = nowUtc.ToLocalTime();
return now;
}
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct TIME_OF_DAY_INFO {
///<summary>The number of seconds since 00:00:00, January 1, 1970, GMT.</summary>
public int elapsedt;
///<summary>The number of milliseconds from an arbitrary starting point (system reset). Typically, this member is read twice,
///once when the process begins and again at the end. To determine the elapsed time between the process's start and finish,
///you can subtract the first value from the second.</summary>
public int msecs;
///<summary>The current hour. Valid values are 0 through 23.</summary>
public int hour;
///<summary>The current minute. Valid values are 0 through 59.</summary>
public int minute;
///<summary>The current second. Valid values are 0 through 59.</summary>
public int second;
///<summary>The current hundredth second (0.01 second). Valid values are 0 through 99.</summary>
public int hunds;
///<summary>The time zone of the server. This value is calculated, in minutes, from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). For time zones
///west of Greenwich, the value is positive; for time zones east of Greenwich, the value is negative. A value of –1 indicates
///that the time zone is undefined.</summary>
public int timezone;
///<summary>The time interval for each tick of the clock. Each integral integer represents one ten-thousandth second (0.0001 second).</summary>
public int tinterval;
///<summary>The day of the month. Valid values are 1 through 31.</summary>
public int day;
///<summary>The month of the year. Valid values are 1 through 12.</summary>
public int month;
///<summary>The year.</summary>
public int year;
///<summary>The day of the week. Valid values are 0 through 6, where 0 is Sunday, 1 is Monday, and so on.</summary>
public int weekday;
}