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With the release of macOS Mojave the command I was using to set the system clocks of our Mac lab systems stopped working. Here is the old command:



ntpdate -bvs time-a.nist.gov



And here are three examples of the new command:



Apple's time server



sudo sntp -sS time.apple.com



Government server in the USA



sudo sntp -sSt 10 time-b.nist.gov



Government server in Canada



sudo sntp -sSt 4 time.nrc.ca



Perhaps it is not a surprise that of the three servers listed above, the Canadian time server is the fastest and therefore the most accurate, but then again I am in Canada. Apple, of course, configures Mac systems out-of-the box to talk to its own server, time.apple.com. The NIST server sometimes times out frequently, even with a 10 second timeout. Perhaps someone here can suggest a better time server.



For reference, here is a link to the NRC’s NTP page which includes information about a subscription service to an authenticated time server:



https://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/time/network_time.html



I'm sure there are similar servers in the USA and elsewhere.

try using just time.nist.gov and see if the response time is any better.

I'm pretty sure systemsetup still works for setting the time server.



systemsetup -setusingnetworktime on -setnetworktimeserver time-a.nist.gov

Yeah, we use systemsetup, I'm pretty certain that's the way Apple recommends to do it.

Thank you. sudo sntp is just what I needed for testing new ntp server installations.

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