Accessing a site without using a browser?

[Justin Malinosky]

I'm not even sure if all the concepts I have are correct here, but this is
basically what I want to do. I'd like to access sites using a sort of ftp
type connection but going through port 80. I need to be able to do this
without using a browser (netscape, I.E., etc). Also, whatever program I
use to do this, needs to be able to run on a remote Unix system (I have
access to about 4 or 5 different flavors so the specific one doesn't
matter). If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Also, if
something I'm trying to do is fundamentally flawed, please let me know
that as well! Thanks!

--

Justin Malinosky
jwmal...@ucdavis.edu

"8 nickels equals 2 paradigms."

[Paul T Hirose]

>: I'm not even sure if all the concepts I have are correct here, but this is

It is.

>: basically what I want to do. I'd like to access sites using a sort of ftp

>: type connection but going through port 80. I need to be able to do this

The type of connection is probably closer to a "telnet type" connection,
not that there is necessarily one of that 'type. Just as a "Quick Start"
tutorial, try the following:
telnet www.engr.ucdavis.edu 80
This is essentially your telnet program with which you ought to be familiar)
being told to connect to the machine www.engr.ucdavis.edu, and to use
port 80 on the destination system (rather than the normal default port.)

Now, you must speak "raw http" (for lack of a better description). Try
typing
GET /
and hit <CR> after the /. What happens is the web-server will essentially
process a "GET Request" and the thing you requested is "/". In this case,
it will serve up teh default URL "/", and you'll see a bunch of HTML
goo fly by. This is the same as if you typed "GET index.html" since the
file "index.html" is the dfhefault, when only a dir is specified.

I'll just stop here, and just add a closing remark. See either "expect"
and use it with telnet. OR better yet, if you need intelligent parsing,
see Perl5 with either LWP or libwww. Both are good Perl5 modules.

PH

PS
Oh - what Mike said about using Lynx would probly work too, although to
me, that smacks of "using a browser" which you didn't want to do. Lynx
is a perfectly valid browser, after all (imho...heck I still use it.)

--
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[Michael A Clifford]

Justin Malinosky (ez04...@dogbert.ucdavis.edu) wrote:
: I'm not even sure if all the concepts I have are correct here, but this is

: basically what I want to do. I'd like to access sites using a sort of ftp
: type connection but going through port 80. I need to be able to do this

: without using a browser (netscape, I.E., etc). Also, whatever program I

: use to do this, needs to be able to run on a remote Unix system (I have
: access to about 4 or 5 different flavors so the specific one doesn't
: matter). If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Also, if
: something I'm trying to do is fundamentally flawed, please let me know
: that as well! Thanks!

Try running lynx. It's a text based web browser. You can run it on
Unix. (It's on CS, Engr, and IT's servers.)

-Michael

[Michael Ng]

Hey! Lynx is still a browser ;-)

Actually, I think the webget.pl (A Perl program) sounds like the program
Justin is looking for. It "downloads" a file using http/ftp protocol as
if it is being viewed by a browser. i.e. Grab a html file or even a
binary file from remote site and save it locally

It can be found in CPAN(from www.perl.com). Ask me if you can't find
it. I have a copy.

Michael A Clifford (macl...@garlic.engr.ucdavis.edu) wrote:
::> Justin Malinosky (ez04...@dogbert.ucdavis.edu) wrote:
<deleted>
::> : type connection but going through port 80. I need to be able to do this

::> : without using a browser (netscape, I.E., etc). Also, whatever program I

<deleted>
::> Try running lynx. It's a text based web browser. You can run it on

::> Unix. (It's on CS, Engr, and IT's servers.)

::> -Michael

--
Michael (sy...@engr.ucdavis.edu)
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| http://www.engr.ucdavis.edu/~syng/ |
| <PGP public key: http://www.engr.ucdavis.edu/~syng/mike.pgp> |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

[Justin Malinosky]

Thanks to everyone who gave me ideas on what to do. It looks like telnet
has some potential and I'll be using that for some other stuff in the
future, but I lose my connection after each command so it's kind of
difficult to use for what I need right now.

The reason I said I didn't want to use a browser was because I had no idea
that there was one that didn't use a graphical interface. So while it's
pretty primative, lynx seems to have all the functionality that I need. I
didn't get a chance to try the perl scripts, but I think I will tinker
with those to see what I can do and learn with them. Thanks again to
everyone who had suggestions!