[shanemhansen]

You don't do a HTTPS handshake by hand. That's what openssl s_client is for.

https://docs.openssl.org/1.0.2/man1/s_client/

Or maybe socat, I don't use it but I'm pretty sure I've seen people use it.

[charcircuit]

You are proving my point that telnet is not useful in modern times.

[abalashov]

Only if you're a web economy weenie and think HTTP[S] is the measure of utility of most TCP interactions. ;)

I can't remember the last time I used telnet to test whether a web server was live. I don't think web servers figure very prominently in the work I do, though not zero, for sure. However, I doubt I'm the only one in that boat.