If not, we write the aggregated result text to the standard output pipe. We then check to see if there is still more data waiting to be read from the stream, or if the socket is still connected, and repeat the loop if either of these is true. If an exception is thrown whilst reading data (typically because the read timeout expired) then we simply treat it as though no data was available. If we receive some data we use the configured text encoding to convert the raw bytes to text and append it to the result. Then, within a loop we read as much data as the buffer will hold, or as much data as there is available to read. function Send-NetworkData while ($Stream.DataAvailable -or $) Technically the “Data” parameter is not marked as mandatory, but it would be somewhat pointless to omit it. The three mandatory parameters are the name (or address) of the destination computer, the destination TCP port number, and the data to send. First is the parameter block, defining three mandatory parameters, and two optional. My script consists of essentially six sections. So easy, that I have written such a script, about 70 lines long (including formatting) in a little over an hour. NET Framework it is easy to quickly implement at least the basic behaviour of Netcat on Windows using the TcpClient and an Encoding. With PowerShell’s tight integration with the full. The tool most similar to Netcat to be included with Windows is the command-line Telnet Client, but it is not easily scriptable and in recent Windows versions it is an optional feature that needs to be intentionally installed. For me however, Netcat is made most useful for two reasons: It is easily used within a script and it is installed-by-default in most Linux distributions I’ve used. Netcat is useful for issuing requests to mail servers, web servers, software or hardware control ports, or almost any network-exposed service.

While Netcat is capable of performing a variety of tasks, in essence it takes data from STDIN, forwards it over a TCP connection to a nominated server and port, and writes any response from the server to STDOUT.

One tool I’ve found particularly handy in Linux is Netcat.

I now get to use all the tools Linux has to offer on a daily basis, but I still miss the rich metadata PowerShell passes along the pipe. I have always been aware of the range of useful tools regularly available to Unix/Linux users, but recently I started a new job where everything is built on Linux and Windows is barely mentioned. I have been a long time Windows user and a PowerShell fan since it was introduced.

Netcat for windows 10