Question: Is anyone aware of any alternatives to curl and wget? The key functional requirement I'm looking for is to be able to execute an HTTPS GET request against a known URL.

The reason I'm looking for an alternative is simply that I'm trying to execute a connectivity test from a server which currently doesn't have wget or curl installed. The server concerned is under strict change control and so installing new software on it is a no-no.

The operating system installed on the server is AIX.

Answer: 
[Pushing up from comments]

Two options: 

* Batch mode from text-based browsers
such as links/lynx/w3m
* Use `openssl
s_client` as noted here:
[Connecting to HTTPS with netcat (nc)](https://serverfault.com/questions/102032/connecting-to-https-with-netcat-nc)
If you can ssh into the server, I recommend this:

1. Think of a random port, like 5555 that you will use on your local machine.
2. Run ssh -L 5555:remote\_server:443 username@aix\_server
3. Point your browser to <https://localhost:5555/>

Your browser will report an error that the certificate is not for *localhost*, but for the remote\_server, but at least you would have proved that the connectivity works. You could also use openssl s\_client -connect localhost:5555, as noted on other answers to verify more in detail the encrypted communication.

Good luck!