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I would like to find a way to open a URL without using a web browser (which makes my computer system run very slow).
Is there an easy way to achieve this on a command prompt using SSH to access another network?
stanigator
Posted 2010-05-09T23:56:28.820
Reputation: 1 319
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ok...try this
from your local computer create an ssh connection forwarding local port 8080 to their web server
ssh -L 8080:destcomputer.domain.com:80 destcomputer.domain.com
then you can run any browser you like on you local computer and connect to
localhost:8080
this should connect you to the webserver destcomputer.domain.com
bryan
Posted 2010-05-09T23:56:28.820
Reputation: 7 848
It looks promising. I tried to follow the direction here: http://help.ece.ubc.ca/How_To_Tunnel_Connections_Through_SSH
But it's still not very clear as I am having trouble tunneling the connection to my localhost. Any comments?
Nvm; set up a SOCKS proxy and solved my problems. – stanigator – 2010-05-10T00:56:34.897
glad it worked! – bryan – 2010-05-10T01:26:43.597
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You can always use elinks in your SSH session. It's a great in-session SSH browser.
If you're just looking to download files, you can just wget them (wget http://test.com/file.html).
EDIT
Let's say you need to download http://test.com/file.pdf, but you require some sort of login first (as it sounded in your comment):
You'd login through SSH:
$ localmachine ~> ssh user@machine
user@machine's password: <password>
$ remotemachine ~> (elinks/links/lynx) http://test.com/login
You'd navigate around the site and log in, and when you select the URL of the file you want to download, links/elinks should ask you where you want to save the file. You can save that file to the machine you're SSH'd into, and scp it to your machine. If you need any more information, let me know :)
METHOD 2
If you have direct access to the file (say http://test.com/file.pdf) you can just run curl -O http://test.com/file.pdf or wget http://test.com/file.pdf and it will be saved to the current directory (every single machine I've ever SSH'd into has either wget or curl).
squircle
Posted 2010-05-09T23:56:28.820
Reputation: 6 365
What if it's a pdf that is only available to certain subscribers, which is the network that I'm accessing through ssh? – stanigator – 2010-05-10T00:09:01.490
@stanigator: Answer updated to reflect your comment. – squircle – 2010-05-10T00:19:10.357
Hmm...the machine that I'm accessing doesn't have links or elinks. I guess I may not be able to achieve my purpose this way. – stanigator – 2010-05-10T00:23:49.817
@stanigator: to get the file you're looking for, do you have to log in, or do you have direct access to it? – squircle – 2010-05-10T00:26:32.897
@stanigator: Does it have lynx? It's very common. See my answer. – Paused until further notice. – 2010-05-10T00:26:43.037
@thepurplepixel: I have direct access to it on the account that I'm logging in through ssh. – stanigator – 2010-05-10T00:29:54.467
@Dennis: according to a comment on bryan's question, it doesn't have lynx either. – squircle – 2010-05-10T00:29:58.600
@stanigator: see my edit; if you have direct access to it and know the URL, method 2 should work. – squircle – 2010-05-10T00:33:09.780
method 2 didn't really work either; I'll ask the network administrator to see if there are options where I can get the files my way. Thanks! – stanigator – 2010-05-10T00:43:07.033
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try
lynx
its an older browser
bryan
Posted 2010-05-09T23:56:28.820
Reputation: 7 848
Nope. It doesn't have it. – stanigator – 2010-05-10T00:29:20.253
Not older, just better :D – crasic – 2011-08-11T05:18:24.070
I remember reading an essay once where Richard Stallman (the founder of the FSF and the creater of GNU) described how he accesed websites when he was forced to use computers without a free software browser. He would
wgetthe html of the website and just read the source. – crasic – 2011-08-11T05:20:21.290