Question

To be written in Python:

Connect to a TCP-based Quote of the Day server (see RFC 865) and obtain a random quote and print it to the console.

Answer 1

Solution:

Quote of the Day (QOTD) Protocol

Quote of the Day is a simple protocol that is used to deliver daily quotes. Although its usage is almost nonexistent these days, there are still a few public servers. The protocol is defined by RFC 865. According to the RFC, a QOTD server is run on port 17 for TCP and UDP connections.

TCP Connections

When a QOTD server gets a connection, it sends a quote and closes the connection, discarding any received data. Basically, a server should do the following

• Listen to connections on port 17.
• Accept a connection.
• Choose a random quote.
• Send the quote to the client.
• Close the connection

Server in Python (Source code):

import socket
import random

quotes = [
    "Never do today what you can do tomorrow",
    "Nobody lies on the internet",
    "The cake is a lie"
]

server = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
server.bind(("0.0.0.0", 17)) # Bind to port 17
server.listen(5)

while True:
    sock, addr = server.accept()
    quote = random.choice(quotes)
    sock.send(f"{quote}\n")
    sock.close()

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The client can be anything that connects to a socket and reads data from it.