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  • HTTP/2 & Telnet?

    From Steven Philley to All on Sun Aug 26 17:23:11 2018
    Hi Everyone,

    Today I discovered HTTP/2. It's a new standard in HTTP to replace HTTP1.x, it also supports pushing data to the client and solves a common blocking issue.

    I read that HTTP/2 will not support Telnet because HTTP/2 is binary based rather than text based.

    Can Telnet be used to debug HTTP1.x requests? Is this what they are takling about when they say Telnet can't be used over Http/2? Or do they literally mean that the entire Telnet protocol simply wont work at all with Http/2?

    My initial thought is that this may have some serious implications for BBSes. Does anyone have any insight?

    Thanks,
  • From Rob Swindell to Steven Philley on Sun Aug 26 20:02:39 2018
    Re: HTTP/2 & Telnet?
    By: Steven Philley to All on Sun Aug 26 2018 05:23 pm

    Hi Everyone,

    Today I discovered HTTP/2. It's a new standard in HTTP to replace HTTP1.x, it also supports pushing data to the client and solves a common blocking issue.

    I read that HTTP/2 will not support Telnet because HTTP/2 is binary based rather than text based.

    HTTP 1.x doesn't "suppot Telnet" either. Since Telnet is *mostly* just text over TCP, some people use telnet clients to send/receive plain-text messages (requests, commands, whatever) to/from servers that use plain-text TCP protocols (e.g. HTTP, SMTP, FTP, NNTP, POP, IMAP, IRC, etc.) for testing purposes. It's actually better to *not* use a Telnet client for this purpose but rather a simple TCP client app, like netcat or perhaps the "raw TCP" or "raw socket" feature of a terminal program. That way the client won't send or expect Telnet commands (beginning with the IAC, 0xff character) that the server isn't going to recognize or send.

    Can Telnet be used to debug HTTP1.x requests?

    Most telnet clients can be used to debug HTTP (and other TCP) servers, but they are not ideal for use.

    Is this what they are takling
    about when they say Telnet can't be used over Http/2?

    Yes.

    Or do they literally
    mean that the entire Telnet protocol simply wont work at all with Http/2?

    No.

    My initial thought is that this may have some serious implications for BBSes. Does anyone have any insight?

    No, no implications for BBSes (that use Telnet).

    -Rob

    digital man

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