Re: Running commands from the browser

["Roger Harman" <RHarman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

They do know how to use ping.  It's just trying to make the whole
process more productive.  We have many many workstations and printers
for our restaurants and other point-of-sale and this would help in
troubleshooting. 

I think the workaround might be just to do it via CGI and let the
iSeries ping it and return results - essentially what you've already
said.


> > > web400@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 02/19/2010 3:02:13 PM >>>
I'm pretty sure you can't, as that would be a huge security hole.

Imagine if any time you went to a web site, that site was able to run an

arbitrary command in your browser just by sending the right 
HTML/JavaScript code to your PC!

My suggestion is that the HTTP *server* do the PING, rather than the 
browser.  They'd click a link/button that took them to a form on the 
server.  They'd enter the name/address of the printer, and it'd be 
submitted to the server, the server does the ping and outputs the 
results as an HTML page to the browser.

If that's not sufficient, you may be able to use a signed Java applet or

something like that...

Though if this is for help desk personnel, I would sure think it'd be a 
better idea to train them in how to use the PING command they've already

got on their PC!


On 2/19/2010 4:48 PM, Roger Harman wrote:
> As part of a help desk app, I'd like to add the ability to ping an IP
> printer by selecting that option from the browser.  I've searched but
> can't find anything that makes sense as to how to do this.  Can it be
> done and how?  These are not necessarily iSeries attached devices.
>
> Generically, how can I invoke a local Windows command from the
browser?