embedded control panel - can this work?

[Harald Becker]

> duh - I see "read the netcat manual" !!!
Try: echo "What about this complex example?" | netcat 127.0.0.1 YOUR_PORT

... depends a bit on the netcat version, but probably (should) work ...
simple enough?

... or bidirectional:

response=`echo "Command message" | netcat 127.0.0.1 PORT`
echo "Got response '$response'"
case "$response" in
   whatever )
      do your response action
      ;;
   * )
      got unexpected response
      ;;
esac