freebsd-ports/net/netcat/pkg-descr
David E. O'Brien c14bd1fe16 New port -- netcat is a simple utility which reads and writes data across
network connections.

Obtained from:  OpenBSD
1996-11-22 08:16:51 +00:00

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Netcat is a simple Unix utility which reads and writes data across
network connections using TCP or UDP protocol. It is designed to be a
reliable "back-end" tool that can be used directly or easily driven by
other programs and scripts. At the same time it is a feature-rich
network debugging and exploration tool, since it can create almost any
kind of connection you would need and has several interesting built-in
capabilities.
Some of netcat's major features are:
Outbound or inbound connections, TCP or UDP, to or from any ports
Full DNS forward/reverse checking, with appropriate warnings
Ability to use any local source port
Ability to use any locally-configured network source address
Built-in port-scanning capabilities, with randomizer
Built-in loose source-routing capability
Can read command line arguments from standard input
Slow-send mode, one line every N seconds
Hex dump of transmitted and received data
Optional ability to let another program service established connections
Optional telnet-options responder
A very short list of potential uses:
Script backends
Scanning ports and inventorying services, automated probes
Backup handlers
File transfers
Server testing, simulation, debugging, and hijacking
Firewall testing
Proxy gatewaying
Network performance testing
Address spoofing tests
Protecting X servers
1001 other uses you'll likely come up with
_H* 960320