Getting the time from NIST

NistQuery.cs

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Sockets;

namespace NistTimeQuery {
    class Program {
        static void Main( string[] args ) {
            byte[] buffer = new byte[ 64 ];

            /* NIST server listens on port 13 and responds to a TCP connection 
             * with a date/time string. */
            Socket s = new Socket(  AddressFamily.InterNetwork 
                                  , SocketType.Stream
                                  , ProtocolType.Tcp );

            /* This is the IP address for www.nist.gov found at 
             * http://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi */
            s.Connect( "24.56.178.140" , 13 );

            /* The server just sends the string upon connection, no need to send anything. */
            int n = s.Receive( buffer );

            /* All done with the socket. */
            s.Close();

            /* Print number of bytes received. */
            Console.WriteLine( "{0} bytes received" , n );

            /* Print out string. Info on format is at 
             * http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/grp40/its.cfm */
            Console.WriteLine( "{0}" , new string( Encoding.ASCII.GetChars( buffer ) ) );

            /* Pause until a key is pressed. */
            Console.ReadKey( true );
        }
    }
}