Visual Basic provides a straightforward way to build network applications using the .NET framework. Here is a basic HTTP proxy server in Visual Basic in less than 20 lines of code.
First we import the required namespaces:
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Threading
Next we create a TcpListener to receive incoming connections:
Dim listener As New TcpListener(8080)
listener.Start()
In a loop, we accept a connection:
Dim client As TcpClient = listener.AcceptTcpClient()
And handle the request:
Dim request As String = GetRequest(client)
Dim url As String = ParseUrl(request)
Dim response As Byte() = GetWebPage(url)
SendResponse(client, response)
The GetRequest method reads the request string from the client stream.
We parse out the URL using a regex:
Private Function ParseUrl(request As String) As String
Return Regex.Match(request, "http://([\\w\\d.]+)/?").Groups(1).Value
End Function
GetWebPage downloads the proxied response:
Private Function GetWebPage(url As String) As Byte()
Using webClient As New WebClient()
Return webClient.DownloadData(url)
End Using
End Function
And SendResponse writes the response back to the client.
The full basic proxy code:
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Threading
Module Proxy
Sub Main()
Dim listener As New TcpListener(8080)
listener.Start()
While True
Dim client As TcpClient = listener.AcceptTcpClient()
Dim request As String = GetRequest(client)
Dim url As String = ParseUrl(request)
Dim response As Byte() = GetWebPage(url)
SendResponse(client, response)
End While
End Sub
Private Function GetRequest(client As TcpClient) As String
' Read request from client stream
End Function
Private Function ParseUrl(request As String) As String
Return Regex.Match(request, "http://([\w\d.]+)/?").Groups(1).Value
End Function
Private Function GetWebPage(url As String) As Byte()
Using webClient As New WebClient()
Return webClient.DownloadData(url)
End Using
End Function
Private Sub SendResponse(client As TcpClient, response As Byte())
' Write response back to client
End Sub
End ModuleThis shows how to build a simple proxy in Visual Basic using .NET's socket classes.
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