UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I am trying to send hex strings down a port but the server treats the strings as ascii. When I telnet to a port, is there a way in which I can specify that the string being sent is in hexadecimal format.

I know thiis can be done quite easily in C, but can it be done using standard unix commands and preferably no in a script?

I would like to be able to do this for both HPUX and Linux.

Cheers,
LLL

How are you doing it now?
You aren't just echoing the hex representation of the data, are you?

Thats what I would like to do, Is there a way to set the type of infromation being sent?

Well, I don't know of any way to do that in telnet, unless it's a mapped key combination you're sending (like control-M, control-s, etc...). You should be able to use netcat or something similar to provide a raw interface. Some shells, like bash and ksh, support the ability to send to a raw interface using the following format:
/dev/tcp/hostname/port
So you could send the string "hello" to port 55 of your local machine by doing this:
echo "hello" > /dev/tcp/localhost/55

To get hex, you can do something like run it through a hex dumper, like "xd" or "xxd"...
echo "Hello" | xxd -p | nc hostname port

Is that what you're looking for?