Netcat Server Connection Refused

Question

Using netcat, I need to create a simple server to respond with simple JSON data.

First I am trying with an HTML page:

while true ; do nc -l 8888  < index.html ; done

or even more simply:

netcat -l 8888 < index.html

And then in my browser I do this:

http://localhost:8888/index.html

I also try to connect using netcat:

nc -vz 127.0.0.1 8888

Each of these yields a 'connection refused' result:

localhost [127.0.0.1] 8888 (ddi-tcp-1): Connection refused

How do I resolve this error?

Bevel

which os? BSD and GNU/Linux netcats are quite different – Gobert

Answer 1

The problem was resolved.

I had to use

netcat -l -p 8888 < index.html

This way I can listen to a localport. Now I it is working.

Bevel

This solved a big issue for me when two android devices wouldnt communicate with each other. Adding the -p fixed it. – Rosiorosita

But it is an error to use -l in conjunction with -p: linux.die.net/man/1/nc – Bowse

@MarvinH. there is a ton of different implementations of nc which have incompatible command line arguments. – Stead

Answer 2

Try it without the index.html in your browser

$ netcat -l 8888 < index.html

In your browser use http://localhost:8888

If this does not work, try to telnet

$ telnet localhost 8888
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
 test
Connection closed by foreign host.

My index.html just contains the string 'test'. If a connection cannot be established the problem is a network problem.

Tweeny

Hi. That was what I tried. It doesn't work. It's a simple thing, can't figure why it doesn't work...Thanks anyway – Bevel

You ommited the index.html in the browser and it didn't work? It works on my machine. It could be your environment, firewall, network setting ... – Tweeny

Yes, i've tried it without index.html. What could be the problem then? – Bevel

Thanks, I can't really see what is happening wrong. I will try to see if I can resolve this...If anyone else has some idea, I would appreciate. – Bevel