On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Greg Kettmann wrote:
> How can I tell (from Netscape?) the platform and HTTP engine that is
> hosting a site?
Netscape can only tell you if the web server is running Netscape's Web
Server. If the URL bar is prefixed with "Netsite:", they are running
Netscape's software. If the URL bar is prefixed with "Location:", they are
running something else.
If you want to find out the details of what a site is running for web server
and OS, the user-friendly way is to go to Netcraft (http://www.netcraft.com),
the web server survey people. Click on the "What's that site running?" link.
The quickest way, though, is to telnet directly to the HTTP port (i.e.,
"telnet www.example.com http". When you connect, type:
HEAD / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example,.com
Note, be sure to include that blank line (just press [ENTER]) immediately
after the "Host" line. Once you get the result, just wait a few seconds and
the remote will hang-up on you. Here's a sample (you type the lines with
dollar-signs in front of them).
$ telnet www.linux.com http
| Trying 216.200.201.193...
| Connected to linux.com.
| Escape character is '^]'.
$ HEAD / HTTP/1.1
$ Host: www.linux.com
$
| HTTP/1.1 200 OK
| Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 17:47:15 GMT
| Server: Apache/1.3.11 (Unix) PHP/3.0.14
| X-Powered-By: PHP/3.0.14
| Content-Type: text/html
|
| Connection closed by foreign host.
As you can see, Linux.com is running Apache 1.3.11 on "Unix". I would hope
they really mean "Linux". ;-)
> Also, and I should know this, ASP stands for Active Server Pages
> (right?). Isn't that an M$ thing?
ASP can stand for Active Server Pages, which is Microsoft's server-side
scripting stuff. It actually has some nice features in it (though the
implementation is your typical MS bogosity). Thus, several implementations
for Unix have been appearing. ChiliSoft (http://www.chilisoft.com/) has one,
I believe the Apache Group (http://www.apache.org) has another. Try a search
on Freshmeat (http://www.freshmeat.net) for "ASP".
ASP can also stand for "Application Service Provider", which refers to the
idea of an external company hosting compute power and software for you at
their site, which you (or your company) accesses remotely. The advantage
being you don't have to worry about the details of providing the applications;
the disadvantage being you cannot *get* to the details of the applications.
This appears to be a variant of the "cycle of reincarnation": We have
migrated from large central systems (IBM mainframes) providing services to
terminals, to PC networks in a peer-to-peer configuration, and now back to
large central systems with ASPs.
The computer industry hasn't done anything new in 10 years, we've just been
following a looped tape back around again. ;-)
--
Ben Scott
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