Nginx Test Lab

📁 Static Content Serving (1-6)

Different methods for serving static files - from basic HTTP to CDN-optimized delivery with security headers.

# Compare download vs view behavior
curl -I https://download.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.pdf
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="sample.pdf"

curl -I https://view.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.pdf
Content-Disposition: inline

# Check HSTS header
curl -I https://secure.samplefiledownload.com/
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains

# Test CORS headers
curl -I -H "Origin: https://example.com" https://cdn.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.js
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

🌐 HTTP Protocol Versions (7-13)

Test different HTTP protocol versions from legacy HTTP/1.0 to modern HTTP/3 (QUIC). Essential for compatibility testing and performance optimization.

# Force specific HTTP versions
curl -0 http://legacy.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt        # HTTP/1.0
curl --http1.1 https://h1.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt  # HTTP/1.1
curl --http2 https://h2.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt    # HTTP/2
curl --http3 https://h3.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt    # HTTP/3

# Check which protocol is used
curl -sI https://h2.samplefiledownload.com/ -o /dev/null -w '%{http_version}\n'
2

# Check Alt-Svc header (HTTP/3 advertisement)
curl -I https://h3.samplefiledownload.com/ | grep -i alt-svc
Alt-Svc: h3=":443"; ma=86400

# HTTP/2 cleartext (prior knowledge mode)
curl --http2-prior-knowledge http://h2c.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt

🗜️ Compression (14-21)

Test Gzip and Brotli compression at different levels. Compare compression ratios, CPU usage, and impact on Content-Length header.

# Compare compression methods
curl -sH "Accept-Encoding: gzip" https://gzip.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt | wc -c
curl -sH "Accept-Encoding: br" https://brotli.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt | wc -c
curl -s https://nocomp.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt | wc -c

# Check Content-Length vs Chunked
curl -I https://nocomp.samplefiledownload.com/files/large-file.bin | grep -E "Content-Length|Transfer-Encoding"
Content-Length: 10485760

curl -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" -I https://gzip.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt | grep -E "Content-Length|Transfer-Encoding"
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Encoding: gzip

🔐 TLS/SSL Configuration (22-28)

Test different TLS versions, cipher suites, and mutual TLS (client certificates). Essential for security compliance testing.

# Test TLS version
curl -v --tlsv1.2 --tls-max 1.2 https://tls12.samplefiledownload.com/ 2>&1 | grep "SSL connection"
SSL connection using TLSv1.2 / ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384

curl -v --tlsv1.3 https://tls13.samplefiledownload.com/ 2>&1 | grep "SSL connection"
SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

# mTLS without certificate (fails)
curl https://mtls.samplefiledownload.com/
400 Bad Request - No required SSL certificate was sent

# mTLS with certificate
curl --cert /etc/nginx/ssl/client.crt --key /etc/nginx/ssl/client.key https://mtls.samplefiledownload.com/
curl --cert-type P12 --cert /etc/nginx/ssl/client.p12:clientpass https://mtls.samplefiledownload.com/

💾 Caching Strategies (29-35)

Test different HTTP caching headers and behaviors. Learn how Cache-Control directives affect browser and CDN caching.

# Check cache headers
curl -I https://immutable.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.js | grep -i cache
Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000, immutable

# Conditional request with ETag
ETAG=$(curl -sI https://etag.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt | grep -i etag | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d '\r')
curl -I -H "If-None-Match: $ETAG" https://etag.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt
HTTP/1.1 304 Not Modified

# Conditional request with Last-Modified
curl -I -H "If-Modified-Since: Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT" https://lastmod.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt

🔑 Authentication (36-39)

Test different authentication methods. From HTTP Basic Auth to API keys and IP whitelisting.

# Basic Auth
curl -u testuser:testpass https://basic-auth.samplefiledownload.com/files/
curl -H "Authorization: Basic dGVzdHVzZXI6dGVzdHBhc3M=" https://basic-auth.samplefiledownload.com/files/

# API Key
curl -H "X-API-Key: key-abc-123" https://apikey-auth.samplefiledownload.com/files/
curl -H "X-API-Key: wrong-key" https://apikey-auth.samplefiledownload.com/files/
401 Unauthorized

# Without auth (fails)
curl -I https://basic-auth.samplefiledownload.com/
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Restricted"

⏱️ Rate Limiting & Throttling (40-44)

Test request rate limits, connection limits, and bandwidth throttling. See how servers handle traffic spikes.

# Hit rate limit (strict: 1 req/sec)
for i in {1..10}; do curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code} " https://rate-strict.samplefiledownload.com/; done
200 200 200 200 200 429 429 429 429 429

# Test bandwidth limit (download large file)
curl -o /dev/null -w "Speed: %{speed_download} bytes/sec\n" https://bw-limit.samplefiledownload.com/files/large-file.bin

# Test connection limit (parallel requests)
for i in {1..15}; do curl -s https://conn-limit.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt & done; wait

🔌 Connection Handling (45-51)

Test keepalive settings, timeouts, and buffer configurations. Affects connection reuse and memory usage.

# Check keepalive behavior
curl -v https://keepalive-long.samplefiledownload.com/ https://keepalive-long.samplefiledownload.com/ 2>&1 | grep -E "Re-using|Connected"
* Connected to keepalive-long.samplefiledownload.com
* Re-using existing connection

# No keepalive (new connection each time)
curl -I https://no-keepalive.samplefiledownload.com/ | grep -i connection
Connection: close

# Test timeout (will fail on timeout-short)
curl --limit-rate 100 https://timeout-short.samplefiledownload.com/files/large-file.bin

✨ Special Features (52-60)

Advanced features: secure download links, A/B testing, health checks, device detection, WebDAV, and more.

# Generate secure link (bash)
SECRET="mysecret"; EXPIRES=$(($(date +%s) + 3600)); URI="/files/sample.txt"
MD5=$(echo -n "${EXPIRES}${URI} ${SECRET}" | openssl md5 -binary | base64 | tr +/ -_ | tr -d =)
curl "https://secure-link.samplefiledownload.com${URI}?md5=${MD5}&expires=${EXPIRES}"

# Check A/B backend
for i in {1..10}; do curl -sI https://canary.samplefiledownload.com/ | grep X-Backend; done
X-Backend: stable
X-Backend: stable
X-Backend: canary

# Request ID tracking
curl -I https://reqid.samplefiledownload.com/ | grep -i x-request-id
X-Request-ID: 5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99

# Health checks
curl https://health.samplefiledownload.com/health
OK
curl https://health.samplefiledownload.com/health/json
{"status":"healthy","timestamp":"2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"}

# Device detection
curl -A "Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 14_0)" -I https://device.samplefiledownload.com/ | grep device
X-Device-Type: mobile

# WebDAV operations
curl -X MKCOL -u webdav:webdavpass https://webdav.samplefiledownload.com/newfolder/
curl -T myfile.txt -u webdav:webdavpass https://webdav.samplefiledownload.com/newfolder/myfile.txt
curl -X PROPFIND -u webdav:webdavpass https://webdav.samplefiledownload.com/
curl -X DELETE -u webdav:webdavpass https://webdav.samplefiledownload.com/newfolder/myfile.txt

📊 Download Size Testing (Content-Length)

When downloading files, the server may or may not send the file size. This affects whether download managers can show progress percentage.

Size Behavior by Subdomain

Quick Test Commands

# Shows Content-Length (progress bar works)
curl -I https://download.samplefiledownload.com/files/large-file.bin 2>/dev/null | grep -E "Content-Length|Transfer-Encoding"
Content-Length: 10485760

# No Content-Length (unknown size, chunked transfer)
curl -H "Accept-Encoding: gzip" -I https://gzip.samplefiledownload.com/files/sample.txt 2>/dev/null | grep -E "Content-Length|Transfer-Encoding"
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

# Force unknown size
curl -I https://chunked.samplefiledownload.com/files/large-file.bin 2>/dev/null | grep -E "Content-Length|Transfer-Encoding"
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

# Compare download progress behavior
curl -# -o /dev/null https://download.samplefiledownload.com/files/large-file.bin
######################################## 100.0%

curl -# -o /dev/null https://chunked.samplefiledownload.com/files/large-file.bin
###                                        (no percentage shown)

Summary

Complete Subdomain Reference

All 60 subdomains with their purpose and key features