RFC 1177

FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers to commonly asked "new internet user" questions

📅 published August 1990, from ietf

RFC 1177: FYI on Questions and Answers 🎀 (Part 1 of 5)

Okay bestie, so this is RFC 1177, titled FYI on Questions and Answers, with the subtitle Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions 💜 It was put out by the Network Working Group and written by G. Malkin of FTP Software, Inc., A. Marine of SRI, and J. Reynolds of ISI. It's dated August 1990 and it's FYI number 4 🦋 Its Status section says it just provides information and doesn't specify any standard. Nothing in its header says it obsoletes or updates anything, so it's not replacing or changing any other RFC, at least not on paper 📜

Table of Contents

1. Introduction....................................................   1
2. Acknowledgements................................................   2
3. Questions About the Internet....................................   2
4. Questions About TCP/IP..........................................   3
5. Questions About Internet Documentation..........................   4
6. Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts.............   6
7. Questions About Services........................................   9
8. Mailing Lists...................................................  11
9. References......................................................  11
10. Suggested Reading..............................................  12
11. Condensed Glossary.............................................  12
12. Security Considerations........................................  23
13. Authors' Addresses.............................................  24

Status of This Memo 🦋

This FYI is one of three called "Questions and Answers" (Q/A), made by the User Services Working Group (USWG) of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The whole goal is to write down the most commonly asked questions and their answers about the Internet 🧠

This memo is here to inform the Internet community. It does not specify any standard, just facts and vibes 💅 Distribution of this memo is unlimited 🌈

1. Introduction ✨

New users joining the Internet community for the first time have literally had the same questions as everyone who ever joined before them 😭 Like, the exact same ones. So the goal here is to give the community up to date, basic Internet knowledge and experience, and move all those repeat questions off the electronic mailing lists, so subscribers don't have to re-read the same queries and answers over and over again 💅

This memo will keep getting updated as USWG members spot additional questions that should be included, and deficiencies or inaccuracies that should be amended in this document 🔥 More FYI Q/A's are coming too, and those will deal with intermediate and advanced Q/A topics 🧚

The Q/A mailing lists are maintained by Gary Malkin at FTP.COM 🍓 A subgroup of the USWG uses them to discuss the Q/A FYIs. There are three of them:

quail@ftp.com           This is a discussion mailing list.  Its
                        primary use is for pre-release (to the
                        USWG) review of the Q/A FYIs.

quail-request@ftp.com   This is how you join the quail mailing list.

quail-box@ftp.com       This is where the questions and answers
                        will be forwarded-and-stored.  It is
                        not necessary to be on the quail mailing
                        list to forward to the quail-box.

2. Acknowledgements 🫶

Huge thanks to these people for their help and contributions to the FYI Q/As 💖 Berlin Moore (PREPNet), Craig Partridge (BBN), Jon Postel (ISI), Karen Roubicek (BBNST), James Van Bokkelen (FTP Software, Inc.), John Wobus (Syracuse University), and David Paul Zimmerman (Rutgers) 👑

3. Questions About the Internet 🌐

I just got on the Internet. What can I do now? 🙈

Okay so you now have access to all the resources you're authorized to use on your own Internet host, on any other Internet host where you have an account, and on any other Internet host that offers publicly accessible information ✨ The Internet lets you move information between these hosts with file transfers. Once you're logged into one host, you can use the Internet to open a connection to another one, log in, and use its services interactively 💻 You can also send electronic mail to users at any Internet site, and to users on lots of non-Internet sites that are reachable by email 📬

There are various other services too! Some hosts give you access to specialized databases or archives of information 📚 The Internet Resource Guide tells you about some of these sites. It lists facilities on the Internet that are available to users, like supercomputer centers, library catalogs and specialized data collections 🧠 The guide is published by the NSF Network Service Center (NNSC) and is continuously being updated. You can get the Resource Guide free over e-mail (send a note to resource-guide-request@nnsc.nsf.net to join the e-mail distribution) or over anonymous FTP (in nnsc.nsf.net:resource-guide/*). Hardcopy is available at a nominal fee (to cover reproduction costs) from the NNSC. Call the NNSC at 617-873-3400 for more information 📞

How do I find out if a site has a computer on the Internet? 🔍

Three good sources to check are "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks" by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams, "The User's Directory to Computer Networks", by Tracy LaQuey, and "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide", by John Quarterman 📖

You can also find some info about Internet sites in the WHOIS database that the DDN NIC at SRI International maintains 🕵️ The DDN NIC has an information retrieval interface to that database, which is also called WHOIS. To use it, Telnet to NIC.DDN.MIL and type whois (carriage return). No login needed 🙌 Type help at the whois prompt for more info on using the facility.

Heads up bestie: WHOIS will show lots of sites, but it may not show every site registered with the DDN NIC (just because of how the program is set up to search the database) ⚠️

4. Questions About TCP/IP 💖

What is TCP/IP? 🤔

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) [4,5,6] is the common name for a family of data-communications protocols used to tie computers and data-communications equipment into computer networks 🖧 It started out on a network called ARPANET, but now it's used on a large international network of universities, other research institutions, government facilities, and some corporations called the Internet. TCP/IP is also sometimes used on other networks, especially local area networks that tie together lots of different kinds of computers or tie together engineering workstations 🌸

What are the other standard protocols in the TCP/IP family? 🧚

Other than TCP and IP, the three main protocols in the TCP/IP suite are the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and the Telnet Protocol 💌 There are tons of other protocols in use on the Internet too. The Internet Activities Board (IAB) regularly publishes an RFC [2] that describes the state of standardization of the various Internet protocols. This document is the best guide to the current status of Internet protocols and their recommended usage 🏆

5. Questions About Internet Documentation 📚✨

5.1. What is an RFC? 🤔

okay so, RFC stands for Request for Comments, and these are the working notes of the Internet research and development community 🧠 bestie, an RFC can be about literally any topic related to computer communication 💅 it could be a meeting report, or it could be the full specification of a standard 🔥 submissions go to the RFC Editor, Jon Postel (POSTEL@ISI.EDU) 🫶

most RFCs describe network protocols or services 🌸 they give detailed procedures and formats, so you have everything you need to build an implementation 🛠️ other RFCs report on the results of policy studies or sum up what technical committees or workshops got up to 📝

ngl, RFCs are not refereed publications, but they do get technical review 🙈 that review comes from the task forces, individual technical experts, or the RFC Editor, depending on what's needed 🧐 right now most standards are published as RFCs, but not every RFC is a standard 💜

anyone can submit a document for publication as an RFC 🦋 submissions must be sent by electronic mail to the RFC Editor 📧 RFCs get distributed online as public access files, and a short message goes out to the distribution list saying the memo is available ✨ if you want to be added to that list, send your request to RFC-REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL 🎀

the online files get copied by people who are interested, then printed or displayed on their own equipment 🖨️ (an RFC can also be returned by email if you send an email query 💌) which means the format of the online files has to work with a wide variety of printing and display equipment 🌈

once a document gets an RFC number and is published, that RFC is never revised or reissued under the same number 👑 so there's never any question about whether you have the most recent version of a given RFC 💖 BUT, a protocol like File Transfer Protocol (FTP) can get improved and re-documented many times across several different RFCs 😭 so it's important to verify that you have the most recent RFC for a particular protocol 🔍 the "IAB Official Protocol Standards" [2] memo is the reference for figuring out the correct RFC for the current specification of each protocol 📖

5.2. How do I obtain RFCs? 📥

RFCs can be grabbed via FTP from NIC.DDN.MIL 🦋 the pathname is RFC:RFCnnnn.TXT or RFC:RFCnnnn.PS, where nnnn is the RFC number 🔢 you log in with FTP, username anonymous and password guest 🔑 the NIC also has an automatic mail service for sites that can't use FTP 💌 you send the request to SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL and put Subject: RFC nnnn in the subject field of the message (or Subject: RFC nnnn.PS for PostScript RFCs) 🎀

RFCs can also be obtained via FTP from NIS.NSF.NET 🌸 log in with username anonymous and password guest, then connect to the RFC directory with cd RFC 📂 the file name looks like RFCnnnn.TXT-1, where nnnn is the RFC number 🔢 the NIS also has an automatic mail service for sites that can't use FTP 📧 you send the request to NIS-INFO@NIS.NSF.NET and leave the subject field blank 🫧 the first line of the message text MUST be SEND RFCnnnn.TXT-1, with nnnn replaced by the RFC number ⭐

requests for special distribution should go to either the author of the RFC in question, or to NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL 💅 unless the RFC itself says otherwise, all RFCs are for unlimited distribution 🌈

5.3. Which RFCs are Standards? 🏆

see "IAB Official Protocol Standards" (currently, RFC 1140) [2] 📚

5.4. How do I obtain OSI Standards documents from the Internet? 🙈

okay, real talk: OSI Standards documents are NOT available from the Internet via anonymous FTP because of copyright restrictions 😭 you can get them from:

Omnicom Information Service 501 Church Street NE Suite 304 Vienna, VA 22180 USA Telephone: (800) 666-4266 or (703) 281-1135 Fax: (703) 281-1505

6. Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts 🏢💜

6.1. What is the IAB? 👑

the Internet Activities Board (IAB) is the coordinating committee for Internet design, engineering and management [7] 🧠 IAB members are deeply committed to making the Internet function effectively and to evolving it for a large scale, high speed future 🚀 the chairman serves a term of two years and is elected by the members of the IAB 🗳️ the current Chair of the IAB is Vint Cerf ✨ the IAB focuses on the TCP/IP protocol suite, along with extensions to the Internet system that support multiple protocol suites 💅

the IAB performs the following functions:

Sets Internet Standards,
Manages the RFC publication process,
Reviews the operation of the IETF and IRTF,
Performs strategic planning for the Internet, identifying long-range problems and opportunities,
Acts as an international technical policy liaison and representative for the Internet community, and
Resolves technical issues which cannot be treated within the IETF or IRTF frameworks.

the IAB has two principal subsidiary task forces 🌸

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Internet Research Task Force (IRTF)

each of these Task Forces is led by a chairman and guided by a Steering Group, which reports to the IAB through its chairman 🫶 for the most part, a collection of Research or Working Groups carries out the work program of each Task Force 🛠️

all decisions of the IAB are made public 📢 the main way IAB decisions get passed along to people interested in the Internet and its TCP/IP protocol suite is the Request for Comments (RFC) note series and the Internet Monthly Report 📰

6.2. What is the IANA? 🔢

the job of coordinating the use of protocol parameters was handed by the Internet Activities Board (IAB) to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) 🎀 these protocol parameters are things like op-codes, type fields, terminal types, system names, object identifiers, and so on 🧩 the "Assigned Numbers" Request for Comments (RFC) [1] documents the currently assigned values from several series of numbers used in network protocol implementations 📖

current types of assignments listed in Assigned Numbers and maintained by the IANA are:

Address Resolution Protocol Parameters ARPANET and MILNET X.25 Address Mappings ARPANET and MILNET Logical Addresses ARPANET and MILNET Link Numbers BOOTP Parameters and BOOTP Extension Codes Domain System Parameters IANA Ethernet Address Blocks Ethernet Numbers of Interest IEEE 802 Numbers of Interest Internet Protocol Numbers Internet Version Numbers IP Time to Live Parameter IP TOS Parameters Machine Names Mail Encryption Types Multicast Addresses Network Management Parameters PRONET 80 Type Numbers Port Assignments Protocol and Service Names Protocol/Type Field Assignments Public Data Network Numbers Reverse Address Resolution Protocol Operation Codes Telnet Options Terminal Type Names Unix Ports X.25 Type Numbers

for more info on number assignments, contact IANA@ISI.EDU 📧

6.3. What is "The NIC"? 🏛️

"The NIC" is the Defense Data Network, Network Information Center (DDN NIC) at SRI International 🌈 it's a network information center that holds the primary repository for RFCs and Internet drafts 📚 the host name is NIC.DDN.MIL 💻 shadow copies of the RFCs and the Internet Drafts are kept by the NSFnet on NNSC.NSF.NET and on MERIT.EDU 🫶

the DDN NIC also provides various user assistance services for DDN users 🎀 contact NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL or call 1-800-235-3155 for more info 📞 on top of that, the DDN NIC is the Internet registration authority for the root domain and several top and second level domains 👑 it maintains the official DoD Internet Host Table ✨, is the site of the Internet Registry (IR) 🦋, and maintains the whois database of network users, hosts, domains, networks, and Points of Contact 🧚

6.4. What is the IR? 🗂️

the Internet Registry (IR) is the organization responsible for assigning identifiers, such as IP network numbers and autonomous system numbers, to networks 💖 the IR also gathers and registers that assigned information 📝 the IR may, in the future, allocate the authority to assign network identifiers to other organizations, but it will keep gathering data about those assignments 🔮 right now, the DDN NIC at SRI International serves as the IR 🌸

6.5. What is the IETF? 🌈

the Internet has grown to cover a huge number of widely dispersed networks in academic and research communities 🌍 it now provides infrastructure for a broad community with all kinds of interests 🫧 the family of Internet protocols and system components has also moved from experimental to commercial development 💼 so, to help coordinate the operation, management and evolution of the Internet, the IAB established the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 🎉

the IETF is chaired by Phill Gross and managed by its Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) 👑 it's a large, open community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the Internet and the Internet protocol suite 🫶 it's organized around a set of eight technical areas, each managed by a technical area director 🧩 besides the IETF Chairman, the area directors make up the IESG membership 💜

the IAB has delegated to the IESG the general responsibility for making the Internet work, and for resolving all short- and mid-range protocol and architectural issues needed to make the Internet function effectively 🔥

6.6. What is the IRTF? 🔬

to promote research in networking and the development of new technology, the IAB established the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) 🧪

in the area of network protocols, the line between research and engineering isn't always clear, so the activities of the IETF and IRTF will sometimes overlap 🙈 there's actually considerable overlap in membership between the two groups 💕 this overlap is seen as vital for cross-fertilization and technology transfer 🦋

the IRTF is a community of network researchers, generally with an Internet focus 🌸 its work is governed by its Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG) 📋 the chairman of the IRTF and IRSG is David Clark 🫶

7. Questions About Services ✨

How do I find someone's electronic mail address? 📬

Okay so there are a bunch of directories on the Internet, but ngl none of them are complete 😭. The two biggest are the WHOIS database at the DDN NIC and the PSInet White Pages. Honestly, you'll usually still have to just ask the person for their email address 💌.

How do I use the WHOIS program at the DDN NIC? 🔍

Bestie, to search the WHOIS database at the DDN NIC, you telnet to the NIC host, NIC.DDN.MIL. No login needed 🙌. Type whois to call up the information retrieval program. Then type the name of the person, host, domain, network, or mailbox you need info on. If you're only typing part of a name, end your search string with a period. Type help for the full deets on what you can search for and how. Having trouble? Message NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL or call 1-800-235-3155. Bug reports go to BUG-WHOIS@NIC.DDN.MIL, and suggestions for improving the program go to SUGGESTIONS@NIC.DDN.MIL 💅.

How do I become registered in the DDN NIC's WHOIS database? 📝

If you want to be listed in the WHOIS database, you must have an electronic mailbox that's accessible from the Internet. First, grab the file NETINFO:USER-TEMPLATE.TXT. You can retrieve it via anonymous FTP from NIC.DDN.MIL, or get it through email. For email, send a message to SERVICE@NIC.DDN.MIL and put the file name in the subject line, so it reads Subject: NETINFO USER-TEMPLATE.TXT. The file comes back to you overnight 🌙.

Fill out the name and address info the file asks for, then send it back to REGISTRAR@NIC.DDN.MIL. Your application gets processed and you'll be added to the database. Unless you're an official Point of Contact for a network entity registered at the DDN NIC, the DDN NIC won't regularly poll you for updates. So remember to send corrections whenever your contact data changes 🫶.

How do I use the White Pages at PSI? 📖

Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSI) sponsors a White Pages Pilot Project that collects personnel info from member organizations into a database and gives online access to that data. It's based on the OSI X.500 Directory standard 🧠.

To get in, telnet to WP.PSI.COM and log in as fred (no password needed). You can now look up info on participating organizations. The program has built-in help: type help for a list of commands, manual for detailed documentation, and whois for how to find references to people. To see which organizations are in the pilot by sharing info about their members, type whois -org *. For more info, email INFO@PSI.COM 💜.

What is Usenet? What is Netnews? 🗞️

Usenet and Netnews are the common names for a distributed computer bulletin board system that some computers on the Internet take part in. It's not strictly an Internet service, though: plenty of computers that aren't on the Internet participate too 🌈.

How do I get on Usenet? How do I get Netnews on my computer? 💻

To get on Usenet, you must acquire the software. It's available for some computers at no cost from some anonymous FTP sites across the Internet. You also need to find an existing Usenet site that's willing to support a connection to your computer 🔌.

What is anonymous FTP? 🦋

Anonymous FTP is a conventional way of letting you sign on to a computer on the Internet and copy specified public files from it [3]. Some sites offer it to distribute software and all kinds of information. You use it like any FTP, but the username is anonymous and the password is guest ✨.

8. Mailing Lists 📨

What are some good mailing lists or news groups? 💬

The TCP-IP, IETF, and RFC Distribution lists are the primary lists for new Internet users who want more info on current and emerging developments in the Internet. The first two are unmoderated discussion lists, and the last is an announcement service used by the RFC Editor 📢.

To join the TCP-IP mailing list, send a message to:

TCP-IP-REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL

To join the IETF mailing list, send a message to:

IETF-REQUEST@ISI.EDU

To join the RFC Distribution list, send a message to:

RFC-REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL

9. References 📚

Here are the receipts, bestie 🧾. Every source the document leans on, exactly as cited:

[1] Reynolds, J., and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers", RFC 1060, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1990.

[2] Postel, J., Editor, "IAB Official Protocol Standards", RFC 1140, Internet Activities Board, May 1990.

[3] Postel, J., and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol (FTP), RFC 959, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1985.

[4] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol - DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification", RFC 791, DARPA, September 1981.

[5] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol - DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification", RFC 793, DARPA, September 1981.

[6] Leiner, B., R. Cole, J. Postel, and D. Mills, "The DARPA Internet Protocol Suite", IEEE INFOCOM85, Washington D.C., March 1985. Also in IEEE Communications Magazine, March 1985. Also as ISI/RS-85-153.

[7] Cerf, V., "The Internet Activities Board" RFC 1160, CNRI, May 1990.

10. Suggested Reading 📖

For further info about the Internet and its protocols in general, you can grab copies of these 🦋:

Bowers, K., T. LaQuey, J. Reynolds, K. Roubicek, M. Stahl, and A. Yuan, "Where to Start - A Bibliography of General Internetworking Information", RFC 1175, FYI 3, CNRI, U Texas, ISI, BBN, SRI, Mitre, August 1990.

Comer, D., "Internetworking with TCP/IP: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture", Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1989.

Krol, E., "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet", RFC 1118, University of Illinois Urbana, September 1989.

11. Condensed Glossary 🧚

As with any profession, computers have their own terminology all their own 💅. Below is a condensed glossary to help make some sense of the Internet world.

address: There are two separate uses of this term in internet networking: "electronic mail address" and "internet address". An electronic mail address is the string of characters you must give an electronic mail program to direct a message to a particular person. See "internet address" for its definition.
AI: Artificial Intelligence. The branch of computer science which deals with the simulation of human intelligence by computer systems.
AIX: Advanced Interactive Executive. IBM's version of Unix.
ANSI: American National Standards Institute. A group that defines U.S. standards for the information processing industry. ANSI participates in defining network protocol standards.
ARP: Address Resolution Protocol. An Internet protocol which runs on Ethernets and Token Rings and maps internet addresses to MAC addresses.
ARPA: Advanced Research Projects Agency. The former name of what is now called DARPA.
ARPANET: Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. A pioneering long haul network funded by ARPA. It served as the basis for early networking research as well as a central backbone during the development of the Internet. The ARPANET consisted of individual packet switching computers interconnected by leased lines.
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
B: Byte. One character of information, usually eight bits wide.
b: bit - binary digit. The smallest amount of information which may be stored in a computer.
BBN: Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc. The Cambridge, MA company responsible for development, operation and monitoring of the ARPANET and, later, the Internet core gateway system, the CSNET Coordination and Information Center (CIC), and the NSFnet Network Service Center (NNSC).
BITNET: Because It's Time Network. BITNET has about 2,500 host computers, primarily at universities, in many countries. It is managed by EDUCOM, which provides administrative support and information services. There are three main constituents of the network: BITNET in the United States and Mexico, NETNORTH in Canada, and EARN in Europe. There are also AsiaNet, in Japan, and connections in South America. See CREN.
bps: bits per second. A measure of data transmission speed.
BSD: Berkeley Software Distribution. Term used when describing different versions of the Berkeley UNIX software, as in "4.3BSD UNIX".
catenet: A network in which hosts are connected to networks with varying characteristics, and the networks are interconnected by gateways (routers). The Internet is an example of a catenet.
CCITT: International Consultative Committee for Telegraphy and Telephony.
core gateway: Historically, one of a set of gateways (routers) operated by the Internet Network Operations Center at BBN. The core gateway system forms a central part of Internet routing, in that all groups must advertise paths to their networks from a core gateway.
CREN: The Corporation for Research and Educational Networking. BITNET and CSNET have recently merged to form CREN.
CSNET: Computer + Science Network. A large data communications network for institutions doing research in computer science. It uses several different protocols, including some of its own. CSNET sites include universities, research laboratories, and commercial companies. See CREN.
DARPA: U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The government agency that funded the ARPANET and later started the Internet.
datagram: The unit transmitted between a pair of internet modules. The Internet Protocol provides for transmitting blocks of data, called datagrams, from sources to destinations. The Internet Protocol does not provide a reliable communication facility. There are no acknowledgements, either end-to-end or hop-by-hop. There is no error control for data, only a header checksum. There are no retransmissions. There is no flow control. See IP.
DCA: Defense Communications Agency. The government agency responsible for installation of the Defense Data Network (DDN), including the ARPANET and MILNET lines and PSNs. Currently, DCA administers the DDN and supports the user assistance and network registration services of the DDN NIC.
DDN 🎀 Defense Data Network. It comprises the MILNET and several other DoD networks.
DDN NIC 🦋 The network information center at SRI International. It's the primary repository for RFCs and Internet drafts, and it provides other services too.
DEC 💻 Digital Equipment Corporation.
DECnet 🌸 Digital Equipment Corporation network. It's a networking protocol for DEC computers and network devices.
default route 🧭 A routing table entry used to direct any data addressed to network numbers that aren't explicitly listed in the routing table.
DOD 🇺🇸 U.S. Department of Defense.
DOE ⚡ U.S. Department of Energy.
DNS 📖 The Domain Name System is the mechanism the Internet uses to translate the names of host computers into addresses. It also lets host computers that aren't directly on the Internet have registered names in the same style. So iconic 💜
EARN 🌍 European Academic Research Network. It's one of three main constituents of BITNET.
EBCDIC 🔤 Extended Binary-coded Decimal Interchange Code.
EGP 📡 External Gateway Protocol. It distributes routing information to the routers and gateways that interconnect networks.
Ethernet 🧵 A network standard for the hardware and data link levels. There are two types: Digital/Intel/Xerox (DIX) and IEEE 802.3.
FIPS 📋 Federal Information Processing Standard.
FTP 📁 File Transfer Protocol. It's the Internet standard high-level protocol for transferring files from one computer to another, and it's giving organized 🍓
gateway 🚪 A special-purpose dedicated computer that attaches to two or more networks and routes packets from one network to the other. An Internet gateway routes IP datagrams among the networks it connects. Gateways pass packets along to other gateways until they can be delivered to the final destination directly across one physical network. Main character energy, honestly 👑
GB 💾 Gigabyte. A unit of data storage size that represents 2^30 (over 1 billion) characters of information.
Gb ⚡ Gigabit. 2^30 bits of information. It's usually used to express a data transfer rate, like 1 gigabit/second = 1Gbps.
GNU 🐃 Gnu's Not UNIX. It's a UNIX-compatible operating system developed by the Free Software Foundation. 🫶

header 📦 The portion of a packet that comes before the actual data. It contains source and destination addresses and error-checking fields. Literally the envelope of the whole vibe 💌
host number 🏠 The part of an internet address that designates which node on the (sub)network is being addressed.
HP 🖨️ Hewlett-Packard.
HYPERchannel ⚡ A high-speed communications link.
I/O 🔁 Input/Output.
IAB 🧠 Internet Activities Board. The IAB is the coordinating committee for Internet design, engineering and management. The bosses of the bosses, lowkey 👑
IBM 🏢 International Business Machines Corporation.
IEEE ⚙️ Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
IETF 🌈 Internet Engineering Task Force. The IETF is a large, open community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers. Its purpose is to coordinate the operation, management and evolution of the Internet, and to resolve short- and mid-range protocol and architectural issues. It's a major source of proposed protocol standards, which get submitted to the Internet Activities Board for final approval. The IETF meets three times a year, and extensive minutes of the plenary proceedings are issued. Iconic community energy 🫶
internet / internetwork 🕸️ Any connection of two or more local or wide-area networks.
Internet 🌐 The global collection of interconnected regional and wide-area networks that use IP as the network layer protocol. Obsessed with how big this is ✨
internet address 🏷️ An assigned number that identifies a host in an internet. It has two or three parts: network number, optional subnet number, and host number.
IP 💌 Internet Protocol. It's the network layer protocol for the Internet. It is the datagram protocol defined by RFC 791.
IRTF 🔬 Internet Research Task Force. The IRTF is a community of network researchers, generally with an Internet focus. Its work is governed by its Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). Research girlies unite 🧪
ISO 🌏 International Standards Organization.

JvNC 🖥️ John von Neumann National Supercomputer Center.
KB 📚 Kilobyte. A unit of data storage size that represents 2^10 (1024) characters of information.
Kb 📶 Kilobit. 2^10 bits of information. It's usually used to express a data transfer rate, like 1 kilobit/second = 1Kbps = 1Kb.
KNET 🦘 Kangaroo Network. It's a hardware/software product (Spartacus/Fibronics) that lets IBM mainframes communicate over networks with the TCP/IP protocol suite. Kangaroos really be bridging the gap 🦘💖
LAN 🏫 Local Area Network. A network that takes advantage of how close together computers are, to offer relatively efficient, higher speed communications than long-haul or wide-area networks.
LISP 🧩 List Processing Language.
MAC 🚦 Medium Access Control. For broadcast networks, it's the method devices use to determine which device has line access at any given time.
Mac 🍎 Apple Macintosh computer.
MB 🗂️ Megabyte. A unit of data storage size that represents over 2^20 (one million) characters of information.
Mb 📻 Megabit. 2^20 bits of information. It's usually used to express a data transfer rate, like 1 megabit/second = 1Mbps.
MILNET 🪖 Military Network. It's a network used for unclassified military production applications, and it is part of the Internet.
MIT 🎓 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
MTTF 🛠️ Mean Time to Failure. The average time between hardware breakdown or loss of service. This may be an empirical measurement or a calculation based on the MTTF of component parts.
MTTR 🔧 Mean Time to Recovery. The average time it takes to restore service after a breakdown or loss. This is usually an empirical measurement.
MVS 🧱 Multiple Virtual Storage. It's an IBM operating system based on OS/1.

NASA 🚀 National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
NBS 📏 National Bureau of Standards. Now called NIST.
network number 🛣️ The part of an internet address that designates the network to which the addressed node belongs.
NFS 🗄️ Network File System. It's a network service that lets a program running on one computer use data stored on a different computer on the same internet, as if it were on its own disk. Borrowing energy, but make it cute 🧸
NIC 🗃️ Network Information Center. An organization that gives network users information about the services provided by the network.
NOC 🛎️ Network Operations Center. An organization responsible for maintaining a network.
NIST 🧪 National Institute of Standards and Technology. Formerly NBS.
NSF 🔭 National Science Foundation.
NSFNET 🌟 National Science Foundation Network. It's a high-speed internet that spans the country and is intended for research applications. It's made up of the NSFnet Backbone and the NSFnet regional networks, and it is part of the Internet. Research queen 👑
NSFNET Backbone 🦴 A network connecting 13 sites across the continental United States. It's the central component of NSFnet.
NSFNET Regional 🗺️ A network connected to the NSFnet Backbone that covers a region of the United States. It's to the regionals that local sites connect.
NYSERnet 🗽 New York State Educational and Research Network. It's an internet that serves NY educational and research institutions. It also serves as the NSFnet regional network for New York State.
OSI 🌍 Open Systems Interconnection. A set of protocols designed to be an international standard method for connecting unlike computers and networks. Europe has done most of the work developing OSI and will probably use it as soon as possible.
OSI Reference Model 🧱 An "outline" of OSI that defines its seven layers and their functions. It's sometimes used to help describe other networks. ✨
OSPFIGP 🛣️ Open Shortest-Path First Internet Gateway Protocol. It's an experimental replacement for RIP. It addresses some problems of RIP and is based on principles that have been well-tested in non-internet protocols. It's often referred to simply as OSPF.
packet 📬 The unit of data sent across a packet switching network. The term is used loosely. Some Internet literature uses it to refer specifically to data sent across a physical network, while other literature views the Internet as a packet switching network and describes IP datagrams as packets. Both takes are valid, bestie 🤷‍♀️
PC 💻 Personal Computer.
PCNFS 🖥️ Personal Computer Network File System.
POSIX 🐧 Portable Operating System Interface. It's an operating system based on UNIX.
protocol 🤝 A formal description of message formats and the rules two computers must follow to exchange those messages. Protocols can describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces (e.g., the order in which bits and bytes are sent across a wire) or high-level exchanges between allocation programs (e.g., the way in which two programs transfer a file across the Internet). This is the core of it all, so pay attention 💅
PSC 🖲️ Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
PSCNET 🌉 Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Network.

RFC 📝 The Internet's Request for Comments documents series. RFCs are working notes of the Internet research and development community. A document in this series may be on essentially any topic related to computer communication, and it may be anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard. Literally the group chat that never stops 💬
RIP 🗺️ Routing Interchange Protocol. It's one protocol that may be used on internets simply to pass routing information between gateways. It's used on many LANs and on some of the NSFnet regional networks.
RJE 📤 Remote Job Entry. It's the general protocol for submitting batch jobs and retrieving the results.
RLOGIN 🔐 Remote Login. It's a service on internets that's very similar to TELNET. RLOGIN was invented for use between Berkeley Unix systems on the same LAN, at a time when TELNET programs didn't provide all the services users wanted. Berkeley plans to phase it out, so it's kinda a legacy moment 🥲
RPC 📞 Remote Procedure Call. It's an easy and popular paradigm for implementing the client-server model of distributed computing. Main character of distributed systems ✨
server 🖨️ A computer that shares its resources, such as printers and files, with other computers on the network. For example, a Network File System (NFS) Server shares its disk space with workstations that don't have a disk drive of their own. Generous queen behavior 👑
SESQUINET 🤠 Sesquicentennial Network. It's a Texas-based regional network named for their sesquicentennial celebration. Y'all, that's iconic 🌵🎉
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) 💌 The Internet standard protocol for transferring electronic mail messages from one computer to another. SMTP specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages they exchange to transfer mail.
SNA (System Network Architecture) 🏢 IBM's data communications protocol.
subnet 🧩 A portion of a network, which may be a physically independent network, which shares a network address with other portions of the network and is distinguished by a subnet number. A subnet is to a network what a network is to an internet.
subnet number 🔢 A part of the internet address which designates a subnet. It is ignored for internet routing purposes, but is used for intranet routing.
SURANET (Southeastern Universities Research Association Network) 🎓 An NSFNET regional network.
T1 📡 A term for a digital carrier facility used to transmit a DS-1 formatted digital signal at 1.544 megabits per second.
T3 🚀 A term for a digital carrier facility used to transmit a DS-3 formatted digital signal at 44.746 megabits per second.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) 🧵 A transport layer protocol for the Internet. It is a connection oriented, stream protocol defined by RFC 793.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) 👯 This is a common shorthand which refers to the suite of application and transport protocols which run over IP. These include FTP, Telnet, SMTP, and UDP (a transport layer protocol).
Telenet 📞 A public packet-switching network operated by US Sprint.
Telnet 🖥️ The Internet standard protocol for remote terminal connection service. Telnet allows a user at one site to interact with a remote timesharing system at another site as if the user's terminal was connected directly to the remote computer.
Token Ring 💍 A type of LAN. Examples are IEEE 802.5, ProNET-10/80 and FDDI. The term "token ring" is often used to denote 802.5.
Tymnet 🌐 A public packet-switching network operated by McDonnell Douglas Network Systems Company.
UDP (User Datagram Protocol) 📦 A transport layer protocol for the Internet. It is a datagram protocol which simply adds a level of reliability to IP datagrams. It is defined by RFC 768.
ULTRIX 🦖 UNIX-based operating system for Digital Equipment Corporation computers.
UNIX 🐧 An operating system developed by Bell Laboratories that supports multiuser and multitasking operations.
UUCP (UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Program) 🤝 A protocol used for communication between consenting UNIX systems.
VMS (Virtual Memory System) 💾 A Digital Equipment Corporation operating system.
WAN (Wide Area Network) 🗺️
WESTNET 🌵 One of the National Science Foundation funded regional TCP/IP networks that covers the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
WHOIS 🔍 An Internet program which allows users to query a database of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts, kept at the NIC. The information for people shows a person's company name, address, phone number and email address.
XNS (Xerox Network System) 🖨️ A data communications protocol developed by Xerox. It uses Ethernet to move the data between computers.
X.25 🔌 A data communications protocol developed to describe how data passes into and out of public data communications networks. The public networks such as Telenet and Tymnet, use X.25 to interface to customer computers.

12. Security Considerations 🙈

Security issues are not discussed in this memo. 💀

13. Authors' Addresses 🦋

Okay, the people who wrote this, bestie 🫶 Here's how to reach each of them:

Gary Scott Malkin
FTP Software, Inc.
26 Princess Street
Wakefield, MA 01880
Phone:  (617) 246-0900
EMail:  gmalkin@ftp.com

April N. Marine
SRI International
Network Information Systems Center
333 Ravenswood Avenue, EJ294
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Phone:  (415) 859-5318
EMail:  APRIL@NIC.DDN.MIL

Joyce K. Reynolds
USC/Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, CA  90292-6695
Phone:  (213) 822-1511
EMail:  jkrey@isi.edu

📦 where this page comes from

ietf: rfc1177 1990-08
💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on 2026-10-15: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms