Help sending data over a socket

[WhiteRider]

I have some basic knowledge of socket programming in Python. Up to now all I have been able to do when establishing a socket is sending a string to a client, what I would like to know is what else can be sent? For example could a program be tunnelled through from the host to the client - like the way netcat allows programs to be executed after a connection is established?

Here is code that only sends a string:

#!/usr/bin/python
import socket, sys
 
if len(sys.argv) < 3:
    print 'Usage: %s [IP] [port]' % sys.argv[0]
    sys.exit(1)
 
ip = sys.argv[1]
port = int(sys.argv[2])
 
sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
 
 
sock.bind((ip, port))
sock.listen(1)
print "Waiting for someone."
 
request, client = sock.accept()
print "Received connection from", client
request.send('Some boring text..\n') #<-- can a program be sent instead of this?
request.shutdown(2) 
print "Socket closed."
sock.close() 
 

[WhiteRider]

Does no-one have any knowledge on Python Socket programming that they could share with me?

[bartonc]

Does no-one have any knowledge on Python Socket programming that they could share with me?

The best indication of the amount of action regarding this issue is the first hit on Google for python socket tutorial:Socket Programming HOWTO (1998). But I'll keep digging.

[WhiteRider]

The best indication of the amount of action regarding this issue is the first hit on Google for python socket tutorial:Socket Programming HOWTO (1998). But I'll keep digging.

I've read that HOWTO. Problem is, is that it only tells you how to set-up a socket. I'm comfortable setting up TCP or UDP sockets I just want to branch out and do others things such as send files or as I mentioned in the first post, tunnel things, like a reverse shell or something interesting like that.