HTTP Viewer

See exactly what an HTTP request returns to your browser

HTTP(S)-URL:

HTTP version:

HTTP/1.0 HTTP/1.1

Request type:

GET POST HEAD TRACE

User agent:

set current

Accept encoding:

set current

Additional headers:

Cookies:

add cookie

POST parameters:

add parameter

Display format:

Auto detect Text Hex

Auto follow location

Instructions

URL
Must begin with http:// or https://.
Request Type
- GET, the default, shows both the header and content.
- HEAD shows only the header -- a good choice if that's all you care about, or if you anticipate a very large amount of content.
- TRACE is of limited interest -- it just reiterates the request.
HTTP Version
The HTTP version may influence the server's response. HTTP/1.1 is the more modern version. Note that when you use HTTP/1.1 the server may respond with "chunked" data (indicated by Transfer-Encoding: chunked in the header) where the complete response is broken up into smaller chunks.
Display Format
- Auto-Detect, the default, looks at the Content-Type line in the header and chooses what it thinks is the appropriate display type.
- Text forces text display, which is suitable for HTML files.
- Hex forces hexadecimal display, which would be more appropriate for image files.
User Agent
This is optional. Sometimes a remote server may return a different response depending on the client or browser that initiated the request. If you don't specify a user-agent identification string, we will copy the one that your current browser uses.
Accept Encoding
Also optional. This header is sometimes used to specify that the browser is willing to accept certain formats in the server's response. An example would be compress, gzip.
Auto-Follow Location
If the server returns a Location: line in the HTTP header, it instructs your browser to "forward" or "redirect" itself to that new location. If this option is selected, HttpView will automatically continue to query such new locations (up to a maximum of 10 times).