Description:

Netcat is a simple Unix utility which reads and writes data across
network connections, using TCP or UDP protocol. It is designed to be a
reliable "back-end" tool that can be used directly or easily driven by
other programs and scripts. At the same time, it is a feature-rich
network debugging and exploration tool, since it can create almost any
kind of connection you would need and has several interesting built-in
capabilities. Netcat, or "nc" as the actual program is named, should
have been supplied long ago as another one of those cryptic but
standard Unix tools.