This lab shows you one method of grabbing a banner from a server and learn information from it.

Requirements: This exercise assumes you’re running Windows on two different systems and know how to access the command line. If you’re not sure how, follow the steps in the study guide to do so.

Download a copy of NetCat.

Note. If you have access to a Linux Kali system, you can skip these steps. NetCat is available from the terminal within Kali.

1. Use your favorite search engine and enter the following search term:

nmap download page

Note that Ncat is integrated with Nmap and is available when you install a standard Nmap package.

2. Go to the Nmap download page.

At this writing, this located here. However, links change. You made to use a search engine to find it.

3. Locate the latest stable release self-installer for nmap. It will have a name similar to nmap-ver-setup.exe.

4. Download and run the Windows self-installer accepting all the defaults.

5. Open a command prompt with administrator privileges.

Enter the following command to verify Ncat is installed:

ncat –version

Use NetCat to Establish a Chat Session

1. Open a command prompt with administrator privileges on the first system.

2. Enter the following command to identify the hostname for your system:

hostname

For our purposes, assume the name of your system is Computer1

3. On Computer1, type in the following command to begin listening on port 5678.

ncat -l 5678

4. On the second system, enter the following command to connect to Computer1.

ncat computer1 5678

Remember, you need to substitute computer1 with the actual name of the computer identified in step 3.

5. Still on the second system, type in some text such as “Are we connected” and press return.

6. On the first system, you’ll see this text. Type in some text such as “Yes!” and press return. You’ll then see the text on the second system.

While this is very basic, it does show you a simple way of using netcat.