Netcat, often abbreviated to “nc” is a computer networking utility for reading from and writing to network connections via the command line. It is also known as “the Swiss Army knife of network tools” due to its ease of use and versatility.
Netcat is often abused by attackers to create bindshells, reverse shells, transfer files, perform portscans, and deliver malicious payloads.
Netcat has been implemented by several different individuals and organizations such as GNU, OpenBSD, Nmap (as Ncat), and others. Each implementation may or may not contain the functionality that you are accustomed to using.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netcat