How do I find out what a server is?

I just appointed as webmaster of a band's website but I don't think I can run ASP on it... (I ran a script but could see the code) how do I find out what it is?
Michael

Use telnet or a similar program to connect to the server at port 80. Issue the following HTTP command:

HEAD / HTTP/1.0
{hit enter twice}

And see what the server sends you back. You can use GET instead of HEAD if you like.

Type fast, the server timeout might kick you out before you can.

Z.

Quote:

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Originally posted by JoshT
Use telnet or a similar program to connect to the server at port 80. Issue the following HTTP command:

HEAD / HTTP/1.0
{hit enter twice}

And see what the server sends you back. You can use GET instead of HEAD if you like.

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pardon my ignorance but could you tell me how to connect?
Michael

Open up a cmd or shell window, type:
telnet yourWebServer 80

You can use host name or ip address for yourWebServer. This should work the same on any OS that has a telnet program (Windows, Linux, etc), although is the local echo option isn't set, you might not see what you type, just what the server sends back, so don't make any typos. ;)

Cool. I did that, typed in "HEAD / HTTP/1.0", and hit enter twice. It showed me the HTML of the index page... what does that mean?
Michael

Hmm, HEAD should get you the HTTP headers only and no content...

I just tried again using "HEAD / HTTP/1.0" and it does give me everything. (just like a view source.)

Michael

They running some older or oddly configured server?

I have no idea :) Thats what I was trying to figure out w/this thread. It's a friend's band's website & I was volenteered to be the new webmaster so I was wanting to do some ASP but after that failed I wanted to know what could be run & whatnot.
Michael

Use this program, http://grc.com/id/idserve.htm

Thanks, that program worked.

Quote:

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Server: Apache/1.3.20 (Unix) ApacheJServ/1.1.2 PHP/4.2.1 FrontPage/5.0.2.2510

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So this means that i would use PHP correct?

Michael

Yes, its says PHP. CGI won't show up in the Server banner, though.

K, thanks. I'll just tell them to move to another server :) I'm an ASP (vbscript) programer, no sense in learning a new language for something I was volenteered to do.
Michael

You might wanna learn PHP though. It's very easy to learn it if you already know ASP.

I think if I do learn a new language it will be Java.
Michael

I learned PHP in 3 hours, after already having learned ASP. Just an evening will get you going, believe me :)

Where did you learn it from? I learned ASP from ASP101 (in the begining) is there a PHP101? (not literaly, i just checked).
Michael

Try www.php.net and www.phpbuilder.com .

I picked up a couple of Wrox and O'Reilly books on the topic.

I didn't use this, but I found a great resource just now:
http://p2p.wrox.com/php/