Getting current GMT time

Question

Is there a method in C# that returns the UTC (GMT) time zone? Not based on the system\'s time.

Basically I want to get the correct UTC time even if my system time is

Answer 1

I use this from UNITY

//Get a NTP time from NIST
//do not request a nist date more than once every 4 seconds, or the connection will be refused.
//more servers at tf.nist.goc/tf-cgi/servers.cgi
public static DateTime GetDummyDate()
{
    return new DateTime(1000, 1, 1); //to check if we have an online date or not.
}
public static DateTime GetNISTDate()
{
    Random ran = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond);
    DateTime date = GetDummyDate();
    string serverResponse = string.Empty;

    // Represents the list of NIST servers
    string[] servers = new string[] {
        "nist1-ny.ustiming.org",
        "time-a.nist.gov",
        "nist1-chi.ustiming.org",
        "time.nist.gov",
        "ntp-nist.ldsbc.edu",
        "nist1-la.ustiming.org"                         
    };

    // Try each server in random order to avoid blocked requests due to too frequent request
    for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
    {
        try
        {
            // Open a StreamReader to a random time server
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(new System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient(servers[ran.Next(0, servers.Length)], 13).GetStream());
            serverResponse = reader.ReadToEnd();
            reader.Close();

            // Check to see that the signature is there
            if (serverResponse.Length > 47 && serverResponse.Substring(38, 9).Equals("UTC(NIST)"))
            {
                // Parse the date
                int jd = int.Parse(serverResponse.Substring(1, 5));
                int yr = int.Parse(serverResponse.Substring(7, 2));
                int mo = int.Parse(serverResponse.Substring(10, 2));
                int dy = int.Parse(serverResponse.Substring(13, 2));
                int hr = int.Parse(serverResponse.Substring(16, 2));
                int mm = int.Parse(serverResponse.Substring(19, 2));
                int sc = int.Parse(serverResponse.Substring(22, 2));

                if (jd > 51544)
                    yr += 2000;
                else
                    yr += 1999;

                date = new DateTime(yr, mo, dy, hr, mm, sc);

                // Exit the loop
                break;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            /* Do Nothing...try the next server */
        }
    }
return date;
}