Print 3000 first characters from the file online using sockets - python-2.7

Question

So I am doing this ungraded assignment from an online course (so please do not hesitate to post solutions to this nemesis of mine).
Assignment open the file from the webpage using import socket,prompt the user for the url, print 3000 first characters including header, but count all of the characters in the file.
So first I have done this:
import socket
import re
url = raw_input('Enter - ')
try:
hostname = re.findall('http://(.+?)/', url)
hostname = hostname[0]
mysock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
mysock.connect((hostname, 80))
mysock.send('GET ' + url + ' HTTP/1.0\n\n')
count = 0
text = str()
while True:
data = mysock.recv(512)
if ( len(data) < 1 ) :
break
count += len(data)
if count <= 3000:
print data
mysock.close()
except:
print 'Please enter a valid URL'
print count
But every time I adjust the buffer in the mysock.recv() the output changes and I get random spaces inside the text.
Then I've done this which eliminated the funky random splits in lines but the output still differs depending on the buffer inside.
import socket
import re
url = raw_input('Enter - ')
try:
hostname = re.findall('http://(.+?)/', url)
hostname = hostname[0]
mysock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
mysock.connect((hostname, 80))
mysock.send('GET ' + url + ' HTTP/1.0\n\n')
count = 0
text = str()
while True:
data = mysock.recv(512)
if ( len(data) < 1 ) :
break
count += len(data)
if count <= 3000:
data.rstrip()
text = text + data
mysock.close()
except:
print 'Please enter a valid URL'
print text
print count
So I've been at it for several hours now and still can't get the exact same output regardless of the size of the buffer without funky line splitting spaces in there.
the file that I use: http://www.py4inf.com/code/romeo-full.txt

Answer 1

I'm studying on same book and i'm on same exercise. Question is 3 years old but don't give af, maybe is helpful for someone.
On first you can't print data in that way. You need something like this:
while True:
data = mysock.recv(512)
if len(data) < 1:
break
print(data.decode(),end='')
Also, it's perfectly normal that you haven't same results if you change the buffer 512 because count variable depends on it. Anyway the author asked just to stop after showing 3000 chars.
My full code (will works only with HTTP, HTTPS not handled):
import socket
import sys
import validators
import urllib.parse
url = input('Insert url to fetch: ')
# Test valid url
try:
valid = validators.url(url)
if valid != True:
raise ValueError
except ValueError:
print('url incorrect')
sys.exit()
# Test socket connection
try:
mysock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
print('\nSocket successfully created')
except socket.error as err:
print('Socket creation failed with error %s' %(err))
# Extract hostname of url
parsed_url = urllib.parse.urlparse(url)
print('Resolving ->', parsed_url.netloc)
# Test if we can resolve the host
try:
host_ip = socket.gethostbyname(parsed_url.netloc)
except socket.gaierror:
print('Unable to resolve', parsed_url.netloc)
sys.exit()
# Connect to host
mysock.connect((parsed_url.netloc, 80))
# Crafting our command to send
cmd = ('GET ' + url + ' HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n').encode()
# Sending our command
mysock.send(cmd)
count = 0
# Receive data
while True:
data = mysock.recv(500)
count += len(data)
if len(data) < 1:
break
if count > 3000:
break
print(data.decode(),end='')
mysock.close()
Could be the solution, maybe