Live Http Headers Ie
Live HTTP Headers Equivalent for IE or Edge 2016
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Over the years, my Live HTTP Headers Equivalent for IE post has pretty consistently gotten a few hits a month. Maybe that is because Google still ranks it #2 behind a StackOverflow post from 2010. I decided to update it since the post is from 2007 and what is available has changed.
The original issue was end users having a problem downloading office files from our web site. The issue only happened in IE, so we could not get them to look at headers using Firefox to diagnose the problem. The users did not want to use Firefox or maybe could not at work environments not allowing them to install alternative browsers.
Maybe – Free
Sorted in order I’d probably recommend.
F12 Developer Tools (for Edge; IE Developer Tools) – looks very much like the Web Developer tools for Firefox and Chrome. The Network tab captures which pages are taking forever to load. Click on a specific request displays the request and response headers.
ieheaders – Dunno if much has changed, but this was the better of the two from the original 2007 post.
No Way – Free
These are too scary or complicated to be something I would want to have to walk end users through using. Fine for power users, but not my purpose.
Fiddler – disappointed the logo is not a crab. Listens in the background and captures all browsers. All our stuff has encrypted traffic which Fiddler can only see by installing a CA called DO_NOT_TRUST, which there is no way I am going to ask clients to do.
Wireshark – probably okay for a power user, but not most people in the general public.
No Way – Paid
Not really useful for my purposes because this was about having end users install something to help us figure out the source of their trouble.
DebugBar HTTPTab – Looks viable, but it is essentially the same as the F12 Developer Tools. Has issues with other integrations.
HTTP Debugger – Sniffs all HTTP traffic.
HttpWatch – free version only works with well known sites. Have to get paid version to see our stuff.
HTTP Analyzer – trial version. Has a warning the technology it uses likely causes antivirus software to think it is malicious software. Difficult to explain to users, hey, use this thing your computer will likely complain is a virus.
IEWatch – IE plugin. Ancient and has not been actively developed in 9 years. Newest OS reported to support is Windows Vista, so it might have issues with more recent ones like 8 and 10?
Viewing HTTP Headers Using Browser Developer Tools
I often find myself viewing HTTP headers (request and response) at the ‘client side’, which are often much quicker (and safer) than decrypting SSL/TLS traffic on a load balancer/ADC. With the use of SSL/TLS growing rapidly even within private networks and the inability to decrypt PFS/DHE protected traffic, this can often be the only way to troubleshoot. The reasons I may want to are many-fold and include;
Checking HTTP compression is working
Checking the correct HTTP version is used, this alone has solved many a performance issue
Checking Cookies are sent or received, mostly in relation to load balancer persistence
Checking other header values, often for information leakage (Cloudflare’s Server header for instance has a value of: cloudflare-nginx)
Checking for redirects (or redirect loops)
Installing browser plug-ins or stand-alone applications for this purpose is a pain, particularly in locked-down corporate and other highly secure environments. Handily enough recent versions of most browsers now include built-in developer tools that offer all I need and avoid all the hassle. I can never remember the necessary details to launch and use them so I thought I’d publish this for my benefit and that of others (at least that’s what my brain told me).
As you’ll see if you ever use these tools, they offer far more in terms of features, filters and other uses than those I’ve described here. I highly recommend you take a closer, longer look at what is available if HTTP is part of your technical world.
Just one more thing – you’ll note in the response headers of many sites (Google and Twitter for instance), the Alternate-Protocol header and value. This relates to SPDY – something I’m hoping to cover here sometime soon. Update: I finally did in this article: What The Heck Is SPDY?
Firefox
Launch Firefox’s built-in developer tools using [F12] or [Ctrl]+[Shift]+I.
You can save time using [Ctrl]+[Shift]+Q instead; this will take you straight to the Network tool. You can also use [Ctrl]+[ or [Ctrl]+] to move between tool tabs
Data collection starts when you hit [F5] or browse to something within that tab.
Once you have some output simply click on the name of any object to view the HTTP headers (as well as Request Method and Response Status Code) related to it.
Click on the Cookies tab/panel for well formatted Cookie details.
Browsing to a new page or refreshing the page clears the current data.
The HTTP version can only be viewed using the Console tab (make sure Net is selected) – click on the object name to view the response version.
Chrome & Vivaldi
Launch Chrome’s built-in developer tools using [F12] or [Ctrl]+[Shift]+I.
There’s no way to directly open them on the Network tab but you can use [Ctrl]+[ or [Ctrl]+] to move between tool tabs (as long as you’ve clicked within the ‘workspace’.
Data collection starts when you hit [F5] or browse to something within the current tab.
Once you have some output simply click on the name of any object to view the HTTP headers (as well as Request Method, Response Status Code and HTTP version) related to it.
Internet Explorer
Launch Internet Explorer’s built-in developer tools (known as F12 Tools) using [F12]. Open the Network tool using [Ctrl]+4.
You must manually start data collection using [F5].
Once you have some output simply double-click on the name of any object to view the HTTP headers (as well as Request Method, Response Status Code and HTTP version in relevant panels) related to it.
Opera
Launch Opera’s built-in developer tools (known as Dragonfly) using [Ctrl]+[Shift]+I.
I can’t seem to find an easy way to view the HTTP version used – if someone can tell me, that would be great.
Added Bonus – REST API Testing
If you happen to be testing or troubleshooting a REST API (perhaps even for one running on a network device) I’d highly recommend Postman for Chrome (no other browsers are supported unfortunately). I’ve found it invaluable when curl doesn’t quite cut it and you need to quickly switch between multiple requests, try different methods and/or modify the payload. A full request history is stored and requests can also be grouped into collections that can be run on multiple devices.
Further Reading
I’d highly recommend you simple read through the relevant parts of RFC2616 for further information on HTTP methods, headers and so on. The RFC is well written and fairly easy to understand compared to most. Even better, it was split into multiple RFCs and the language clarified in 2014, as follows;
RFC7230 – HTTP/1. 1: Message Syntax and Routing
RFC7231 – HTTP/1. 1: Semantics and Content
RFC7232 – HTTP/1. 1: Conditional Requests
RFC7233 – HTTP/1. 1: Range Requests
RFC7234 – HTTP/1. 1: Caching
RFC7235 – HTTP/1. 1: Authentication
The icon Artwork used in this article is by the GNOME Project and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3. 0 United States License.
How To View HTTP Headers, Cookies In Google Chrome …
When you develop a web application, you sometimes need to view HTTP headers or cookies values in a web browser to verify whether your code executes correctly or not. This example will tell you how to find and view the HTTP header value and cookies in both Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft internet explorer. 1. View HTTP Headers, Cookies In Google Google Chrome, and browse the webpage by input the page url in the URL Address text the web page load completes, right-click the webpage, then click the Inspect menu item in the popup menu there will pop up a window in the right or bottom area of the web browser, just click the Network tab in the window top area and reload the web page again. It will list all the network assets in the left panel, click one asset in the left panel, then click the Headers tab in the right panel to see all the Response Headers and values, click the Cookies tab to see all cookies.
2. View HTTP Headers, Cookie In Mozilla is similar to google chrome, just right-click the webpage in the firefox click Inspect Element menu item in the popup menu will pop up a window in the right or bottom of firefox. Click the Network tab in the window and reload the webpage will show all the network assets in a list. Click one asset in the list, you can see the Headers or Cookies by click the related tab on the right. 3. View HTTP Headers, Cookie In Internet a web page in Internet click Settings and more ( 3 dots at the top right corner of internet explorer) —> Developer Tools menu click the Network tab, reload the web page, and select one network asset on left, then you can click the Headers or Cookies tab on right to see the related header or cookie values.
Frequently Asked Questions about live http headers ie
How do I view HTTP headers in IE?
View HTTP Headers, Cookie In Internet Explorer. Then click the Network tab, reload the web page, and select one network asset on left, then you can click the Headers or Cookies tab on right to see the related header or cookie values.
How do I use Live HTTP headers?
Launch Chrome, and then go to the Chrome Web Store Live HTTP Headers Web page (see Resources).Click the “Free” button, and then click “Add” to install the add-on.Click the “Live HTTP Headers” icon in the menu bar to open the Live HTTP Headers Configuration page.More items…
How do I view HTTP headers?
To view the request or response HTTP headers in Google Chrome, take the following steps :In Chrome, visit a URL, right click , select Inspect to open the developer tools.Select Network tab.Reload the page, select any HTTP request on the left panel, and the HTTP headers will be displayed on the right panel.Jan 21, 2016
