NT4.0 Migration to Windows 2003:Using WFetch

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WFETCH VERSION 1.3
1.1             Overview
WFetch version 1.3 is an HTTP client with a graphical interface for testing or troubleshooting HTTP servers.  It displays the HTTP request and response so that the communication can be easily understood.  WFetch creates HTTP requests that test the performance of new Web sites or of Web sites that contain new elements, such as Active Server Pages (ASP) or wireless protocols.  
WFetch supports all common authentication methods: Anonymous, Basic, NTLM, Digest, Kerberos, and Negotiate.  In addition, the tool allows you to use secure connections, including the option to choose a secure protocol and cipher.  WFetch also supports proxy connections.
1.2             System Requirements
WFetch runs on the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional operating systems.
1.3             Using WFetch Version 1.3
1.3.1       Request: There are five elements of a WFetch version 1.3 request that can be customized: verb, host, port, HTTP version, and path.
·                 Verb: Choose one of the verbs in the drop-down list, or enter a different verb.  Provided verbs are: GET, HEAD, PUT, DELETE, TRACE, POST, and OPTIONS.  
·                 Host: Type the host name of the computer to which you want to connect such as, www.fabrikam.com.  If you have connected to the computer in previous WFetch sessions, you can select the host name from the drop-down list.
·                 Port: Type the number of the port to which you want to connect.  For nonsecure connections, the default port is 80.  For secure connections, the default port is 443.
·                 Version: Select the client-supported HTTP version: 1.0 or 1.1.  Though you can enter other version numbers, those versions might not be supported by WFetch.
·                 Path: Enter URIs, such as /default.htm, or URLs, such as http://www.fabrikam.com/, in this text box.  However, to actually connect to a URL as specified in the Path text box, you must choose the Crack URL option from the File menu (or press CTRL+U).  WFetch breaks the URL down to protocol, host, port, and URI, and then updates the appropriate controls.
1.3.2       Authentication: Use the following authentication settings to customize your HTTP request.
·                 Auth: The authentication method you use for the connection.  WFetch does not attempt to use Anonymous authentication first.  Instead, it uses the authentication method that you specify.  If you select Basic authentication, the user name and password are sent using authorization headers as an UUENCODED string.  If you select Kerberos authentication, the explicit Kerberos package cannot be used to authenticate against IIS with default settings.  Instead, you can use the Negotiate package with Kerberos authentication.  To use Kerberos directly, you must add the Kerberos name into the NTAuthenticationProviders setting in the metabase (an IIS setting exposed through ADSI).
·                 Domain: The user domain.  
·                 User: The user name to use for authentication.  
·                 Passwd: The user password to use for authentication.  The password—and all other settings—is saved only when the application or active window is closed.
1.3.3           Connection: Use the following connection settings to customize your HTTP request.
·                 Connect:
            The following connection options are available:
            HTTP This option involves no Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).  
            HTTPS This option uses the default SSL protocol.  
            PCT 1.0
            SSL 2.0
            SSL 3.0
            TLS 3.1 (supported on Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4.0 and later operating systems)
·                 Cipher: Enabled for secure connections only (this is an advanced setting).  Typically, you should use the default option, in which case Schannel chooses the connection method.  When choosing an encryption cipher, keep in mind that some ciphers are not supported on certain configurations; for example, Triple DES works only on a computer with strong encryption.  
·                 Client cert: Client certificates can be used only with PCT1, SSL3, and TLS.  Use client certificates that have been installed on the system and that are used by Internet Explorer.  The following options are commonly selected:
·                 none: **cert from IE If you select this option, a dialog box appears, offering a list of client certificates used by Internet Explorer.  
·                 Proxy: The proxy server name and port number.
·                 Trace: If you select the Trace option, WFetch provides extensive log output about the HTTP requests and responses, along with information about socket connection.  When this option is disabled, only the final response from the server is displayed.
·                 Socket Reuse: If you select the Reuse option, WFetch uses the same connection for multiple HTTP requests.  Connections are closed automatically when any of the following changes:
            Host name
            Port
            Connection type
            Client certificate (applicable only with certain secure connections)
            Cipher (applicable only with certain secure connections)
Notes
·                 If you reuse a connection, but you want to authenticate for only the first request of that connection, you must change the authentication method to Anonymous.  This method does not send authentication headers after the first authenticated request is completed.  
·                 If you choose to reuse a connection, the reused connection does not add keep-alive headers.  You can add keep-alive headers manually by selecting Add Headers in the Advanced Request option.  
1.3.4           Advanced Request Information: This option allows you to add custom headers or body content to the HTTP request.  After you select whether you want to add a header, body, or both from the list box, you can either type the content in the text box or select the from file option and type the path to the file in the text box.  You can use the following escape characters in the Advanced Request text box:
\r for a carriage return
\n for a new line
\t for a tab
\\ for a backslash
\x000 for the hex code of the character to be sent
The following options are available in the Advanced Request list box:
·                 Disabled
·                 No custom headers or body are added to the request.  
1.3.5           Add Headers: Allows you to add custom headers to the request.  Custom headers precede certain mandatory headers that are sent automatically.  You must include a carriage return and one new line after each header.  For example, you can use the following format:
Header1:text\r\n
Header2:text\r\n
—or—
Header1:text
Header2:text
1.3.6           Add Body: Allows you to add the body content of the request (escape characters enabled).  A content-length header and authentication headers based on the selected authentication method are added automatically.
1.3.7       Add Headers & Body:
This option supports the following syntax:
Header1:text\r\n
Header2:text\r\n
\r\n
body line1\r\n
body line2\r\n
—or—

Header1:text
Header2:text
body line1
body line2
The final request is built as follows:
request line+custom headers+mandatory headers+body
1.3.8       Raw Request: Use this option to build a request manually.  WFetch reads the request exactly as you type it into the text box.  The following example shows the first request line for a nonsecure proxy connection:
GET http://www.server.com:81/ HTTP/1.1\r\n
For a secure proxy connection, the initial proxy connection is maintained by WFetch:
CONNECT https://www.server.com:443/ HTTP/1.1\r\n
The raw request looks identical to a request that does not use a proxy.  
If you want to use a raw request, it is recommended that you first run a standard HTTP request with trace enabled, copy the last request from the log screen and paste it into the Advanced Request text box, and then edit the request to customize it.
Important: You must end each raw request with an empty line (by using \r\n); otherwise, the server will not respond.  
1.3.9       Logging: You can customize the amount of information that is sent to the WFetch logs by filtering log output to eliminate irrelevant information.  For example, if you need to check only the response status code, you might not be interested in the response body.
To configure log settings:
1.              From the File menu, click Log settings.  
2.              In the Filter section, select any of the following items to include them in the WFetch log:
·         Headers Displays response headers
·         Body Displays the response body
·         Request Displays the request sent by the client
·         Info Displays internal trace information
·         Start/finish of request Marks the beginning and end of the request
·         Socket Displays information about opening, closing, and reusing sockets and client-side port numbers
You can specify to which file WFetch should write the logs, or you can append a log to an existing log file.
To specify the log file:
From the File menu, click Log settings.  
1.      In the File section, select the Log to File option.  
2.      If you want to append the log to an existing file, select Append.  
3.      Type the file name in the text box.  
a.      If you type the name of an existing log file, and you do not select Append, WFetch will overwrite the existing file.  
b.      If you select the Cleanup log screen before each request option, Wfetch erases the contents of the Log Output window whenever a new request begins, so that results from only one HTTP request appear in the window at a time.  The Cleanup log screen before each request setting does not affect logging to a file.
Note: Log file settings are automatically reset when WFetch is restarted.