Question

I’m using the Winsock control:

Private Sub Form_Load()
  Winsock1.Connect "stackoverflow.com", 80
End Sub

Private Sub Winsock1_Close()
  Winsock1.Close
End Sub

Private Sub Winsock1_Connect()
  Winsock1.SendData "GET /questions/8624871/vb6-alternative-to-inet-webbrowser-control HTTP/1.1" & vbCrLf & "Host: stackoverflow.com" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
End Sub

Private Sub Winsock1_DataArrival(ByVal bytesTotal As Long)
  Dim s As String

  Winsock1.GetData s, vbString
  RichTextBox1.Text = RichTextBox1.Text & s
End Sub

How can I know that the control has completed receiving the file when the header doesn’t contain Content-Length?

I’ve heard of some ways, like when Winsock1.state is 0 it means that the connection is closed, but sometimes it remains in some other state, like 7, so I need another solution.

Answer 1

If you still want to roll your own HTTP client, you should read the HTTP spec rather than guessing.

HTTP transfers use the Content-Length header to determine the length of the data. If the header is missing, then the end of data is signalled by the connection closing.