[simonw]

Neat, works against example.com

  exec 3<>/dev/tcp/example.com/80
  printf 'GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: example.com\r\nConnection: close\r\n\r\n' >&3
  cat <&3

Outputs:

  HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:37:45 GMT
  Content-Type: text/html
  ...

I always end up on example.com for this kind of thing because there are so few domains these days that don't enforce https!

[QuantumNomad_]

example.com is also great for that reason when something fails about a captive portal on a public WiFi.

I open my web browser and go to http://example.com and get redirected to the captive portal page again and retry completing what they need from me to get internet access.

[some_random]

Fun fact, this is almost exactly how active portal detection is done in the OS/browser!

https://gist.github.com/skull-squadron/edb8c0122f902013304c0...

[QuantumNomad_]

Yep :) I just find example.com easier to remember and quicker to type than any of the OS or browser makers own URLs like

- http://captive.apple.com/

- http://connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/generate_204

- http://detectportal.brave-http-only.com/

Plus, it feels nice to depend on the reserved domain name example.com instead of relying on a domain that any one specific corporation has to maintain :D

[xp84]

What gives you confidence example.com won't start serving the HTTPS redirect though? There isn't any reason they wouldn't, and given that browsers are clearly tending towards showing big scary warnings to even accessing something over cleartext, I wouldn't be surprised if they flipped that switch just to avoid confusing noobs.

[1f60c]

Also http://detectportal.firefox.com. And http://neverssl.com was set up for this purpose while being a bit easier to remember :)

[0l]

I remember a while back neverssl.com would happily serve HTTPS requests! Another good alternative is http://httpforever.com/

[xp84]

I have been using neverssl.com for this same purpose :)

My only concern would be that example.com doesn't promise to never do the 'required SSL' thing.

[LeoPanthera]

I use neverssl.com for this purpose because it is designed to resist caching.

[gabrielsroka]

This works too

  exec 3<>/dev/tcp/example.com/80
  printf 'GET / HTTP/1.1\r
  Host: example.com\r
  Connection: close\r
  \r
  ' >&3
  cat <&3

You can even take out the \r though they should be there