Thread: Socket web browser

I am trying to create a simple web browser, but I have not found any tutorials. I have read a socket tutorial (but it is not on creating a web browser), and the code I give below is what I have come with. I do not know why it does not work at all. It kind of stops at the receive part. I used a packet sniffer and saw that I was sending some data to the site address, but I am not getting the webpage HTML code back. Can somebody tell me what I am doing wrong?

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <winsock.h>

WSADATA wsaData;
char buf[100];
int socketsrc, bytesRecv, bytesSent;
struct sockaddr_in dest_addr;
struct hostent *h;
char *msg = "GET / HTTP/1.1";

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(1, 1), &wsaData) != 0)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "WSAStartup failed.\n");
    exit(1);
    }
    if ((socketsrc = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) == -1)
    {
     perror("socket");
     exit(1);
     }
    printf("\nsuccess: socket");

     if (argc != 2) { // error check the command line
     fprintf(stderr,"usage: getip address\n");
     exit(1);
     }
     if ((h=gethostbyname(argv[1])) == NULL) { // get the host info
     printf("\nNo Host for %s", argv[1]);
     exit(1);
     }
    printf("\nsuccess: hostname");
    dest_addr.sin_family = AF_INET; // host byte order
    dest_addr.sin_port = htons(80); // short, network byte order
    dest_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("216.239.57.99");
    memset(&(dest_addr.sin_zero), 0, 8); // zero the rest of the struct
    
    if (connect(socketsrc, (struct sockaddr *)&dest_addr,
    sizeof(struct sockaddr)) == -1) {
    perror("connect");
    exit(1);
    }
    printf("\nsuccess: connect");
        
    bytesSent = send(socketsrc, msg, strlen(msg), 0);
    printf( "\nBytes Sent: %d", bytesSent );

    //and this is where I think the program just stops

    while((bytesRecv = recv( socketsrc, buf, 99, 0 )) != -1 ) {
      if ( bytesRecv == 0) {
       printf( "\nConnection Closed.");
       break;
      }
    printf( "\nBytes Recv: %d", bytesRecv );
    }

    printf("\nsuccess: recieve");
    closesocket(socketsrc);

    WSACleanup();
    return 0;
}

Moved to the Networking Board.

Perhaps your request (char* msg) should be more like "GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: www.thesitehere.com\r\n\r\n" at a bare minimum. \r\n is a crlf (google), like pressing enter in a telnet/ssh client. Otherwise this looks pretty clean. I am pretty fond of this tutorial for your basic winsock blocking client (C++): http://madwizard.org/view.php?page=t...pter6&lang=cpp whereas your code is pure C off MSDN Hope changing your HTTP request works! Also, the strings you recv from your socket are not null-terminated (don't want 00 lying about image data). If you wish to print them, you might for instance:

Code:

	recvBuffer[iRet] = 0x00;
	std::cout << recvBuffer;

Lines up so perfectly.

Wow! Thanks, now I am finally getting some results!
I didn't even know I was just writing in pure C -.-

Unfortunately, since I am kind of a beginner to C, I do not really understand your code. I can hardly even understand my code Well like I can tell what the second line does, which is display the string, but I do not know what 0x00 means, and not even how to get the string from the recv().

I am improving though, at least I hope so. I will try to follow the tutorial that you suggested, since it seems that it is what I am trying to do. Maybe I will be able to understand all this stuff soon.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I also have a really really noob question:
How do I get the cin and cout to work? It just says that it is undeclared...

I am trying to use this code:

Code:

cout<<Starting Up;

but this doesn't work either

Code:

std::cout<<Starting Up;

I think you can already tell I do not know too much about c++.
I've been too spoiled by PHP.. -.-
Plus I never used classes in PHP cause I never found any use for them.

I hope I haven't scared you away with so many questions
The only things I think I need is why cout doesn't work and what recvBuffer[iRet] = 0x00 is. I will try to figure out the rest with the tutorial you gave.

Many Thanks!

O bleh.
I meant to put quotes around that
the include iostream works!
I don't see why we need to include all these files. Why not just include like one file that is a combination of everything?

buffer of the recv
It give me back the correct stuff, then a 0, then repeats part of the correct stuff again. <-all this is in the last buffer

Might we see the new code you're using? We're not psychic!

I found the problem!
This is kind of dumb, since Tonto made a statement about the recv buffer not being null-terminated. I did not know what a string not being null-terminated meant before so I thought he meant something about the while loop never ending since it will never receive NULL. Now that you are thoroughly confused about what I was saying, here was my problem:

Code:

buf[bytesRecv] == 0;

Here is my code if someone finds this thread and wants to create something to get the HTML from a site:
http://lelements.net/files/gethtml.txt
*Use at your own risk, just because it works for me doesn't mean it works for you.

How would I read the individual bytes of the buffer I receive in HEX?
How would I send a packet in HEX also?

Thanks for all your helps!

Please, If you are a beginner at C, then don't attempt to write this. You started out by saying there are no tutorials on building web browsers. This is true because writing a web browser is increidbly complex. If you are capable of writing a web browser then you don't need a tutorial.
Sockets also have zero to do with C. If you are new to C then you shouldn't be writing a socket application. Learn the language first, then learn third party things, such as sockets.
By this point you are ready to say to me: I've started this application and have made some headway in this program. After I finish this I'll go back and learn C properly. Besides, I learn things better by jumping in over my head.
My response to that? Bull. Without a strong grasp of C you are just going to be asking a lot of annoying questions to get yoru program to work. Such as:

How would I read the individual bytes of the buffer I receive in HEX?
How would I send a packet in HEX also?

These questions are silly.
Go learn C, come back later. I know you don't want to hear that but hey, that's life, deal with it.