RFC 1325

FYI on Questions and Answers Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions

📅 published May 1992, from ietf

RFC 1325: FYI on Questions and Answers 🎀

Part 1 of 8 🧚

Okay bestie, here's the paperwork tea ☕. This is RFC 1325, filed as FYI 4 (the number stays FYI 4 even when the RFC number changes ✨). It's titled FYI on Questions and Answers, with the subtitle Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions. Two authors wrote it: G. Malkin from Xylogics and A. Marine from SRI 👩‍💻. It came out in the Network Working Group in May 1992 🌸. It obsoletes RFC 1206, and the title block doesn't list any updates.

Status of this Memo 📜

So this memo is just giving info to the Internet community 🦋. It does not specify an Internet standard, and it's not a standard in any way 🙅. Distribution of this memo is unlimited, so share the love 💖.

Abstract 🌈

This FYI RFC is one of two FYIs called "Questions and Answers" (Q/A) 💅. The User Services Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) made it, and the whole goal is to document the most commonly asked questions and answers on the Internet 🫶.

New Questions and Answers 🆕

Okay so on top of updating the previous version of this FYI RFC, the following new questions were added 🎉:

  • Questions About the Internet:
    • How do I get a list of all the hosts on the Internet?
  • Questions About Internet Documentation:
    • What is the RFC-INFO service?
    • What is an FYI?
    • What is an STD?
    • What is the Internet Monthly Report?
  • Questions About Internet Organizations:
    • What is the Internet Society?
  • Questions About Internet Services:
    • What is "archie"?
    • How do I Connect to archie?
  • Mailing Lists and Sending Mail:
    • How Do I Send Mail to Other Networks?

Table of Contents 📚

   1. Introduction.................................................  2
   2. Acknowledgements.............................................  3
   3. Questions About the Internet.................................  3
   4. Questions About TCP/IP.......................................  5
   5. Questions About the Domain Name System.......................  6
   6. Questions About Internet Documentation.......................  6
   7. Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts.......... 14
   8. Questions About Services..................................... 19
   9. Mailing Lists and Sending Mail............................... 23
  10. Miscellaneous "Internet lore" questions..................... 27
  11. Suggested Reading........................................... 28
  12. References.................................................. 29
  13. Condensed Glossary.......................................... 30
  14. Security Considerations..................................... 42
  15. Authors' Addresses.......................................... 42

1. Introduction ✨

New users joining the Internet community have the exact same questions everyone else who ever joined had 🙈. The mission is to give the community up-to-date, basic Internet knowledge and experience, while moving all the repeat stuff off the electronic mailing lists so subscribers don't have to read the same queries and answers over and over again 💅.

Future updates of this memo will be made as User Services members spot extra questions that should be included, and any deficiencies or inaccuracies that need fixing 🔍. Even though the RFC number will change with each update, it will always be FYI 4 🌷. There's also an extra FYI Q/A, FYI 7, that covers intermediate and advanced Q/A topics [11] 🧠.

The Q/A mailing lists are run by Gary Malkin at Xylogics.COM 📬. A subgroup of the User Services Working Group uses them to talk about the Q/A FYIs. There are three of them:

  • quail@xylogics.com: This is a discussion mailing list 💬. Its main job is pre-release review of the Q/A FYIs. You don't need to be on this list to get the FYI documents.
  • quail-request@xylogics.com: This is how you join and leave the quail mailing list 🚪.
  • quail-box@xylogics.com: This is a write-only list that works as a repository for candidate questions and answers 📥. You don't need to be on the quail mailing list to forward things to the quail-box. Heads up though, this is not a place to ask questions you don't know the answers to 🙃.

2. Acknowledgements 🎀

Big thank yous to these people for their help and contributions to this FYI Q/A 🫶: Corinne Carroll (BBN), Vint Cerf (CNRI), Peter Deutsch (McGill), John Klensin (MIT), Doug Mildram (Xylogics), Tracy LaQuey Parker (UTexas), Craig Partridge (BBN), Jon Postel (ISI), Matt Power (MIT), Joyce K. Reynolds (ISI), Karen Roubicek (Faxon), Patricia Smith (Merit), Gene Spafford (Purdue), and Carol Ward (SRI) 👑.

3. Questions About the Internet 🌐

What is the Internet? 🌍

The Internet is a huge collection of networks (all of which run the TCP/IP protocols) that are tied together so that users on any one of them can use the network services TCP/IP provides to reach users on any of the others 🔗. It started with the ARPANET, but now it includes networks like NSFNET, NYSERnet, and thousands of others 🌟. There are other major wide area networks, like BITNET and DECnet networks, that aren't based on the TCP/IP protocols, so they aren't part of the Internet 🙅. Still, you can talk between them and the Internet over electronic mail, thanks to mail gateways that act as "translators" between the different network protocols involved 📨.

Note: You'll often see "internet" with a small "i" 👀. That could mean any network built on TCP/IP, or it might mean networks using other protocol families that are composites built out of smaller networks.

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 through file transfers 📁. Once you're logged into one host, you can use the Internet to open a connection to another, log in, and use its services interactively (this is known as remote login or "TELNETing" 💻. Plus, you can send electronic mail to users at any Internet site and to users on many non-Internet sites that can receive electronic mail 💌.

There are other services too 🧚. For example, some hosts give you access to specialized databases or to archives of information 🗂️. The Internet Resource Guide gives info 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 it's continuously updated ✨. The Resource Guide is free by e-mail (send a note to resource-guide-request@nnsc.nsf.net to join the e-mail distribution) and by anonymous FTP (in nnsc.nsf.net:resource-guide/*) 🆓. You can get hardcopy at a nominal fee (to cover reproduction costs) from the NNSC. Call the NNSC at 617-873-3400 for more info 📞.

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 of 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 maintained at the DDN NIC at Network Solutions, Inc. 🗃️. The DDN NIC (Defense Data Network, Network Information Center) gives you an information retrieval interface to that database, which is also called WHOIS. To use it, TELNET to NIC.DDN.MIL and type whois (then carriage return) 🖱️. No login is needed. Type help at the whois prompt for more info on using the facility 🙌. Heads up though: 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) 🤷‍♀️.

How do I get a list of all the hosts on the Internet? 🗺️

You really don't want that 💀. The list includes almost 727,000 hosts 😳. Almost all of them need access permission before you can actually use them 🔐. Still, there are machines that serve special functions and are open to the public 🌈. There isn't a definitive list yet, but here are a few available machines. They're available via telnet ✨.

  • A geographic information server that provides latitude, longitude and other statistics about a city 🌆. Reach it with:
telnet martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000
  • The Library of Congress maintains an online catalog 📚. Reach it with:
telnet dra.com
  • NASA SpaceLink offers the latest NASA news, including shuttle launches and satellite updates 🚀. Reach it with:
telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov

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 over 100 data-communications protocols 🧵. They're used to organize computers and data-communications equipment into computer networks 🖧. TCP/IP was developed to interconnect hosts on ARPANET, PRNET (packet radio), and SATNET (packet satellite) 📡. All three of those networks have since been retired, but TCP/IP lives on 🦋. It's currently used on a large international network of networks called the Internet, whose members include universities, other research institutions, government facilities, and many corporations 🎓. TCP/IP is also sometimes used for other networks, especially local area networks that tie together lots of different kinds of computers or engineering workstations 🛠️.

What are the other well-known standard protocols in the TCP/IP family? 🗂️

Okay so besides TCP and IP, the three main protocols in the TCP/IP suite are the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) [8], the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) [3], and the TELNET Protocol [9] 💌. There are many other protocols in use on the Internet too 🌸. The Internet Activities Board (IAB) regularly publishes an RFC [2] that describes where the various Internet protocols stand in standardization 📜. That document is the best guide to the current status of Internet protocols and their recommended usage 👑✨.

5. Questions About the Domain Name System 🌐

What is the Domain Name System? 💖

okay so the Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical, distributed way of organizing the Internet's name space 🗂️✨ It groups hosts into a hierarchy of authority, which lets addressing and other info get spread out and looked after in a really distributed way. The big win? Using DNS means you don't have to depend on one centrally-maintained file that maps host names to addresses. No single source of truth to babysit, bestie 🫶

What is a Fully Qualified Domain Name? 🎀

A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is a domain name that includes every higher level domain that's relevant to the entity being named 💅 Picture DNS as a tree, where every node has its own label. The FQDN for a specific node is its label, followed by the labels of all the other nodes between it and the root of the tree. For a host, that means the string naming the particular host, plus every domain the host is part of, up to and including the top-level domain. The root domain is always null, so it's basically the invisible base of the whole tree 🌳

Here's an example: PARIS.NISC.SRI.COM is an FQDN for the host at 192.33.33.109 🧚 And NISC.SRI.COM is the FQDN for the NISC domain. It's giving organized filing cabinet energy, no cap 📂

6. Questions About Internet Documentation 📚

What is an RFC? 🦋

The Request for Comments documents (RFCs) are the working notes of the Internet research and development community 📝 A document in this series can be about pretty much any topic related to computer communication. It can be anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard. Submissions for Requests for Comments can be sent to the RFC Editor at RFC-EDITOR@ISI.EDU. And the RFC Editor is Jon Postel 👑

Most RFCs describe network protocols or services, often with detailed procedures and formats for implementing them 🔧 Others report on the results of policy studies, or summarize the work of technical committees or workshops. All RFCs are considered public domain unless they're explicitly marked otherwise 🌸

RFCs aren't refereed publications, but they do get technical review from task forces, individual technical experts, or the RFC Editor, depending on what's appropriate ✨ Right now most standards are published as RFCs, but not every RFC specifies a standard, so don't mix those up 🙈

Anyone can submit a document for publication as an RFC 💌 Submissions have to go by electronic mail to the RFC Editor. For more info, check out RFC 1111, "Instructions to RFC Authors" [10]. RFCs are available online in public access files, and a short message gets sent to a notification distribution list announcing that the memo is out. To get added to that list, email RFC-REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL 📬

The online files get copied by interested people, then printed or displayed on their own equipment. (An RFC can also be sent back by electronic mail, in reply to an electronic mail query.) So 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 re-issued under the same number. There's never a question of whether you have the most recent version of a particular RFC 💯 However, a protocol (like File Transfer Protocol (FTP)) can be 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 working out which RFC to cite for the current specification of each protocol 💖

How do I obtain RFCs? 🛍️

RFCs are available online from several repositories around the world 🌍 For a list of repositories, plus instructions for getting RFCs from each of the major US ones, FTP to the host ISI.EDU and grab the file in-notes/rfc-retrieval.txt. That host supports anonymous login. You can also get info about RFC repositories by email. Send a message to rfc-info@isi.edu, and in the body of the message type help: ways_to_get_rfcs (without the quotes) 💅

Here are two examples of getting RFCs online ✨

RFCs can be obtained via FTP from NIC.DDN.MIL, using the pathname rfc/rfcNNNN.txt (where "NNNN" is the number of the RFC). Log in with FTP, username "anonymous" and password "guest" 🔐

RFCs can also be obtained via FTP from NIS.NSF.NET. Using FTP, 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 number of the RFC) 🗃️ The NIS also has an automatic mail service for sites that can't use FTP. Address 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, to NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL, or to NISC@NISC.SRI.COM. SRI International runs the FTP.NISC.SRI.COM online repository of RFCs and other files. It also makes the RFCs available in hardcopy for people who have neither FTP nor email access to the Internet 📦 Hardcopy RFCs are sold by SRI on a cost-recovery basis. SRI also has a hardcopy subscription service for RFCs, plus several publications that bring together selections of RFCs 🎁 Unless the RFC itself specifically says otherwise, all RFCs are for unlimited distribution 🌈

How do I obtain a list of RFCs? 📋

SRI keeps a file that's an index of the RFCs 🗒️ It lists each RFC, starting with the most recent, and for each one gives the number, title, author(s), issue date, and number of hardcopy pages. It also lists the online formats (PostScript or ASCII text) for each RFC, plus how many bytes each online version is. If an RFC is also an FYI, that's noted, along with the matching FYI number. (There's a parallel FYI Index too!) Finally, the Index notes whether an RFC is obsoleted or updated by another RFC and gives that RFC's number. It also notes if an RFC itself obsoletes or updates another RFC, and gives that number. The index gets updated online every time an RFC is issued 🔄

The RFC Index is available for anonymous FTP from the FTP.NISC.SRI.COM host as rfc/rfc-index.txt. The FYI Index is online as fyi/fyi-index.txt. They can also be requested by email by sending a message to mail-server@nisc.sri.com. In the body of the message, say send rfc-index or send fyi-index (don't use quotes, but do use lowercase) 💌 The RFC Index is also available in hardcopy from SRI for $12, same as individual RFCs. To get help obtaining the Index, call SRI at 1-415-859-3695 📞

What is the RFC-INFO service? 🤖

The Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California (ISI), announced a service called RFC-Info ✨ It's a service rather than a document, but we're covering it here anyway because it's so closely tied to RFC information 🫶

RFC-Info is an email-based service for finding and retrieving RFCs and FYIs 📨 You can ask for "lists" of all the RFCs and FYIs that have certain attributes ("filters"), like their ID, keywords, title, author, issuing organization, and date. Once an RFC is uniquely identified (for example, by its RFC number), it can also be retrieved 🎯

To use the service, send an email to RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU with your requests in the body of the message. Feel free to put anything in the SUBJECT, because the system ignores it 🙃 All input is case independent. Report problems to RFC-MANAGER@ISI.EDU 🚨

To get started, you can send a message to RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU with requests like these examples (leave out the explanations between brackets) 🧚

Help: Help              [to get this information]

List: FYI               [list the FYI notes]
List: RFC               [list RFCs with window as keyword or in title]
  keywords: window
List: FYI               [list FYIs about windows]
  Keywords: window
List: *                 [list both RFCs and FYIs about windows]
  Keywords: window
List: RFC               [list RFCs about ARPANET, ARPA NETWORK, etc.]
  title: ARPA*NET
List: RFC               [list RFCs issued by MITRE, dated 1989-1991]
  Organization: MITRE
  Dated-after:  Jan-01-1989
  Dated-before: Dec-31-1991
List: RFC               [list RFCs obsoleting a given RFC]
  Obsoletes: RFC0010
List: RFC               [list RFCs by authors starting with "Bracken"]
  Author: Bracken*      [* is a wild card matches everything]
List: RFC               [list RFCs by both Postel and Gillman]
  Authors: J. Postel    [note, the "filters" are ANDed]
  Authors: R. Gillman
List: RFC               [list RFCs by any Crocker]
  Authors: Crocker
List: RFC               [list only RFCs by S.D. Crocker]

  Authors: S.D. Crocker
List: RFC               [list only RFCs by D. Crocker]
  Authors: D. Crocker

Retrieve: RFC           [retrieve RFC-822]
  Doc-ID: RFC0822       [note, always 4 digits in RFC#]

Help: Manual            [to retrieve the long user manual, 30+ pages]
Help: List              [how to use the LIST request]
Help: Retrieve          [how to use the RETRIEVE request]
Help: Topics            [list topics for which help is available]
Help: Dates             ["Dates" is such a topic]
List: keywords          [list the keywords in use]
List: organizations     [list the organizations known to the system]

Which RFCs are Standards? 🏆

Check out "IAB Official Protocol Standards" (currently, RFC 1280) [2] 👑

What is an FYI? 🌷

FYI stands for For Your Information 💕 FYIs are a subset of the RFC series of online documents.

FYI 1 states, "The FYI series of notes is designed to provide Internet users with a central repository of information about any topics which relate to the Internet. FYI topics may range from historical memos on operational questions. The FYIs are intended for a wide audience. Some FYIs will cater to beginners, while others will discuss more advanced topics."

So, generally speaking, FYI documents tend to be more information oriented, while RFCs are usually (but not always) more technically oriented 🤓

FYI documents get both an FYI number and an RFC number. As RFCs, if an FYI ever gets updated, it's issued again with a new RFC number, but its FYI number stays the same. This can be a little confusing at first, but the goal is to help users figure out which FYIs cover which topics 🧠 For example, FYI 4 will always be FYI 4, even though it may be updated several times and get different RFC numbers along the way. So you only need to remember the FYI number to find the right document. Remembering titles works too, of course 🎀

FYIs can be obtained the same way RFCs can, and from the same repositories. In general, their pathnames are fyi/fyiNN.txt or fyi/fyiNN.ps, where NN is the FYI number without leading zeroes 🌸

What is an STD? 🦋

The newest little sibling in the RFC family is the STDs (Standards) 💅 RFC 1311 [12] is the one that introduces this subseries, and its whole thing is clearly flagging which RFCs document Internet standards 🫶 An STD number only gets assigned to specs that have gone through the full standardization process in the Internet ✨ Existing Internet standards already have STD numbers, and you can find the list in RFC 1311 and in the IAB Official Protocol Standards RFC 🌸

Like FYIs, once a standard gets an STD number, that number is locked in 🔒 even if the standard is reworked, re-specified, and reissued under a brand new RFC number. Main character number, no changes 👑

Okay, this distinction is so important, bestie 💀 A "standard" and a "document" are not the same thing. Different RFC documents always have different RFC numbers. BUT sometimes the complete spec for one standard is split across more than one RFC. When that happens, every RFC that's part of that spec carries the same STD number. For example, DNS is specified by RFC 1034 and RFC 1035 together, so both of them are labeled STD 13 🧚

What is the Internet Monthly Report? 📰

The Internet Monthly Report is where organizations share, online, what they've accomplished, what milestones they've hit, or what problems they've found, all sent to the Internet Research Group 💖 Lots of orgs involved in the Internet send in monthly updates of their activities for the report.

The Internet Monthly Report is for Internet information purposes only.

Want to get it? Join the mailing list that sends it out 💌 To get added to or removed from the Internet Monthly Report list, send your request to cooper@isi.edu.

Back issues are also available through anonymous FTP from the host NIS.NSF.NET, in the imr directory 📂 The file names look like IMRYY-MM.TXT, where YY is the last two digits of the year and MM is the two-digit month. For example, the June 1991 Report lives in IMR91-06.TXT 🎀

What is an Internet Draft? Are there any guidelines available for writing one? ✍️

Internet Drafts (I-Ds) are the current working documents of the IETF 🛠️ They're generally formatted like an RFC, with some key differences:

  • The Internet Drafts are not RFCs and are not a numbered document series.
  • The words INTERNET-DRAFT appear in place of RFC XXXX in the upper left-hand corner.
  • The document does not refer to itself as an RFC or as a Draft RFC.
  • An Internet Draft does not state nor imply that it is a proposed standard. To do so conflicts with the role of the IAB, the RFC Editor, and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).

An Internet Drafts Directory has been set up so IETF members can review and comment on draft documents that will eventually go to the IAB and the RFC Editor to be considered for publishing as an RFC 👀 The Internet Drafts Directories are mainly maintained at the NSFNET Network Service Center (NNSC). There are also several "shadow" machines that hold the IETF and Internet Drafts Directories:

NSF Network Service Center:  nnsc.nsf.net
DDN NIC:  nic.ddn.mil
SRI International: ftp.nisc.sri.com
Pacific Rim:  munnari.oz.au
Europe:  nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17)

To access these, use anonymous FTP. Log in with username anonymous and password guest 🔑 Once you're in, cd internet-drafts, and then you can retrieve the Internet Draft files.

For more info on the IETF's Internet Drafts, or if you're having trouble retrieving them, reach out to Megan Davies (mdavies@nri.reston.va.us) or Greg Vaudreuil (gvaudre@nri.reston.va.us) 🫶

How do I obtain OSI Standards documents? 🔍

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

American National Standards Institute
11 West 42nd Street
New York, NY  10036  USA
Telephone: (212) 642-4900

However, the GOSIP specification, which covers the use of OSI protocols within the U.S. Government, is available from SRI and from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The final text of GOSIP Version 2 is now available from both sites ✨

Online sources:

Available through anonymous ftp from osi.ncsl.nist.gov
(129.6.48.100) as:

   ./pub/gosip/gosip_v2.txt        -- ascii
   ./pub/gosip/gosip_v2.txt.Z      -- ascii compressed
   ./pub/gosip/gosip_v2.ps         -- PostScript
   ./pub/gosip/gosip_v2.ps.Z       -- PostScript compressed

Available through anonymous ftp from ftp.nisc.sri.com
(192.33.33.22) as:

   netinfo/gosip-v2.txt        -- ascii
   netinfo/gosip-v2.ps         -- PostScript

Hardcopy sources:

Standards Processing Coordinator (ADP)
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Technology Building, Room B-64
Gaithersburg, MD  20899
(301) 975-2816
Network Information Systems Center
SRI International, Room EJ291
333 Ravenswood Ave.
Menlo Park, CA  94025
1-415-859-3695

7. Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts ✨

What is the IAB? 🎀

okay so 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 evolve to meet 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 Lyman Chapin 👑. the IAB focuses on the TCP/IP protocol suite, and on extensions to the Internet system that support multiple protocol suites 🌈.

the IAB performs the following functions:

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

the IAB has two principal subsidiary task forces:

  1. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
  2. 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 everyone who cares about the Internet and its TCP/IP protocol suite is the Request for Comments (RFC) note series and the Internet Monthly Report 📜.

What is the IETF? 🦋

the Internet has grown to include a huge number of widely dispersed networks in academic and research communities, and it now provides infrastructure for a broad community with all kinds of interests 🌸. on top of that, the family of Internet protocols and system components has 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 who care about the Internet and the Internet protocol suite 💜. it's organized around a set of several technical areas, and each one is 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 keep the Internet functioning effectively 💅.

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 IETF and IRTF will sometimes overlap 🫠. there's actually a lot of overlap in membership between the two groups too, and that's 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), and the chairman of the IRTF and IRSG is Jon Postel 👑.

What is the Internet Society? 🌍

the Internet Society is a relatively new, professional, non-profit organization with the general goal of fostering the well-being, continued interest in, and evolution and use of the Internet 💖. it's often abbreviated ISOC, and it anticipates that it will bring the IAB, IETF, and IRTF functions into its operation 🫶.

the following goals of the Society are taken from its charter:

  • A. To facilitate and support the technical evolution of the Internet as a research and education infrastructure, and to stimulate the involvement of the scientific community, industry, government and others in the evolution of the Internet;
  • B. To educate the scientific community, industry and the public at large concerning the technology, use and application of the Internet;
  • C. To promote educational applications of Internet technology for the benefit of government, colleges and universities, industry, and the public at large;
  • D. To provide a forum for exploration of new Internet applications, and to stimulate collaboration among organizations in their operational use of the global Internet.

more info about the Internet Society is available by anonymous FTP from the host NNSC.NSF.NET in the directory isoc 📂. here's the list of files you can grab:

Filename (Topic)          Description

index-isoc                An index of the isoc directory

announcement              Internet Society Announcement

charter                   Internet Society Charter

inet-conference           INET 92 Internet Society Annual Meeting
                          Announcement and Call for Participation

isoc-advisory-council     The Internet Society advisory council

isoc-founding-members     List of the Internet Society founding
                          members

isoc-secretariat          Information about the Internet Society
                          secretariat

isoc-trustees             List of the Internet Society trustees

questions-and-answers     Internet Society Questions & Answers
                          by Vint Cerf

membership-organizations  Internet Society Organizational
                          Membership Form

membership-individuals    Internet Society Individual Membership
                          Form

you can also get this info over email through the NNSC Info-Server 📧. the Info-Server is an automated program that sends back information through email. to get these files that way, send a mail message to info-server@nnsc.nsf.net. in the body of the message, type Request: isoc, followed by the topic names of any files you want. for example:

   Request: isoc
   Topic:   inet-conference
   Topic:   questions-and-answers
   Topic:   charter
   Topic:   announcement
   Request: end

notice that the "Topics" for the Info-Server match the file names you'd use when FTPing 🥹.

What is the IANA? 🔢

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

Internet addresses and Autonomous System numbers are assigned by the Network Information Center at Network Solutions, Inc. 🏢. that responsibility was delegated by the IANA to the DDN NIC, which serves as the Internet Registry. the IANA is located at USC/Information Sciences Institute 📍.

the 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
Mainl Encryption Types
Multicast Addresses
Network Management Parameters
Point-to-Point Protocol Field Assignments
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 on number assignments, contact IANA@ISI.EDU 💌.

What is a NIC? What is a NOC? 🛠️

NIC stands for Network Information Center 💁. it's an organization that gives network users information about the services the network provides.

NOC stands for Network Operations Center 🔧. it's an organization that's responsible for maintaining a network.

for lots of networks, especially smaller, local ones, the NIC and NOC functions are combined 🏡. for bigger networks, like mid-level and backbone networks, the NIC and NOC are separate organizations, but they still need to interact to fully do their jobs 🤝.

What is "The NIC"? 🗂️

"The NIC" usually refers to the Defense Data Network, Network Information Center (DDN NIC), which is now at Network Solutions, Inc. 🪪. the DDN NIC is a network information center that maintains a repository for RFCs and Internet Drafts. the host name is NIC.DDN.MIL. shadow copies of the RFCs and Internet Drafts are also kept on several other hosts, including NIS.NSF.NET and FTP.NISC.SRI.COM 🪞.

the DDN NIC also offers various user assistance services for DDN users. contact NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL or call 1-800-365-3642 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, 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 🗃️.

this NIC was located for many years at SRI International, so you may also hear people say "SRI NIC" 🕰️. SRI also maintains an online information repository and provides general Internet information services. for example, the SRI Network Information Systems Center is currently the only site that provides paper copies of the RFCs, which are made available on a cost recovery basis 📠. call 415-859-3695 for more on that service 💕.

What is the IR? 🏛️

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

8. 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 biggest ones are the WHOIS database at the DDN NIC, the PSInet White Pages, and KNOWBOT. Honestly, you'll still usually 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, periodt ✨ 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 the name, end your search string with a period. Type help for a more in-depth explanation of what you can search for and how to search. If you get stuck, message NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL or call 1-800-365-3642 📞

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

if you want to be listed in WHOIS, you have to 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.

Fill out the name and address info the file asks for, then send it back to REGISTRAR@NIC.DDN.MIL. They'll process it and you'll get added to the database. Heads up though: unless you're an official Point of Contact for a network entity registered at the DDN NIC, they won't regularly poll you for updates. So you should 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 you online access to that data 🌸 It's based on the OSI X.500 Directory standard.

To get in, TELNET to WP.PSI.COM and login as fred (no password necessary, iconic 👑). Now you can look up info on participating organizations. The program has help built in: help shows you a list of commands, manual gives detailed documentation, and whois tells you how to find references to people. To see a list of the organizations in the pilot project that provide info on their members, type whois -org *.

For more info, send a message to WP-INFO@PSI.COM 💜

How do I use the Knowbot Information Service? 🤖

The Knowbot Information Service is a white pages "meta-service," which means it gives you one uniform interface to a bunch of different white pages services on the Internet. You can form a single query that searches the NIC WHOIS service, the PSI White Pages Pilot Project, and MCI Mail (among others), then see the responses displayed in one uniform format. It's giving main character energy 😭

Right now you can reach it by TELNETting to port 185 on the hosts nri.reston.va.us and sol.bucknell.edu. From a UNIX host, use telnet nri.reston.va.us 185. There's also an electronic mail interface: send mail to netaddress at either nri.reston.va.us or sol.bucknell.edu.

The commands help and man summarize the command interface. Just enter a user name at the prompt, and it searches a default list of Internet directory services for the info you asked for. You can add organization and country info with the syntax userid@organization.country. For example, the queries droms@bucknell and kille@ucl.gb are both valid.

Note: these are not Domain Names! They're just a syntax for specifying an organization and a country for the search 🙈

The default list of directory services currently includes the whois services at the DDN NIC and the white pages service for MCIMail. If you specify an organization, the PSI X.500 service gets searched too. Other services can be requested explicitly ✨

What is USENET? What is Netnews? 📰

USENET is the formal name, and Netnews is the common informal name, for a distributed computer information service that some hosts on the Internet use. USENET handles only news, not mail 🙅 It uses a variety of underlying networks for transport, including parts of the Internet, UUCP, BITNET, and others. USENET is not part of the Internet proper. Netnews can be a valuable tool for economically transporting traffic that would otherwise be sent via mail 💰 And USENET has no central administration 🌈

How do I get on USENET? 🌐

To get on USENET, you have to acquire the software. It's available at no cost for some computers from some anonymous FTP sites across the Internet. You also have to find an existing USENET site that's willing to support a connection to your computer. In many cases, this "connection" just means additional traffic over existing Internet access channels.

One well-known anonymous FTP archive site for USENET software and info is ftp.uu.net. There's a "news" directory in there with lots of software distribution and info sub-directories 📂

It is recommended that new users subscribe to and read news.announce.newusers, since it'll help you get oriented to USENET and the Internet 🧚

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 anonymous FTP to distribute software and all kinds of info. You use it like any FTP, but the username is anonymous. Many systems will allow any password and request that the password you choose is your userid. If that fails, the generic password is usually guest 🔑

What is "archie"? 🦋

The archie system was created by a group at McGill University in Montreal to automatically track anonymous FTP archive sites, and this is still its primary function. It currently makes available the names and locations of some 1,500,000 files at some 900 archive sites 🤯

Archie's User Access component lets you search the "files" database for these filenames. When matches are found, you get the appropriate archive site name, IP address, the location within the archive, and other useful info 💖

You can also use archie to "browse" through a site's complete listing in search of info you're into, or get a complete list of the archive sites known to that server 👀

The archie server also offers a "package descriptions" (or "whatis") database. It's a collection of names and descriptions gathered from a variety of sources, and it can be used to identify files located throughout the Internet, plus other useful info. Files identified in the whatis database can then be found by searching the files database as described above. Additional databases are planned for the coming months 📅

How do I connect to archie? 🔌

You can connect to archie in a variety of ways. There's a conventional TELNET interface, an electronic mail interface, and a variety of client programs. There are currently nine archie servers located throughout the world 🌍

To try the TELNET interface, TELNET to the host ARCHIE.MCGILL.CA and login as user archie (there is no password required). Type help to get you started. The servers command can be used to locate an archie server closer to your site. Using an archie server closer to you relieves some of the load on the McGill host 💜

For the electronic mail interface, send mail to archie@archie.mcgill.ca with the word help in either the subject or body of the message 📧

Documentation on archie is available for anonymous FTP from ARCHIE.MCGILL.CA in the subdirectory archie/doc. A variety of archie client programs are available in the subdirectory archie/clients. Questions, comments, and suggestions can be sent to the archie development group by mail to archie-group@archie.mcgill.ca 🫶

What is "TELNET"? 💻

The term "TELNET" refers to the remote login that's possible on the Internet because of the TELNET Protocol [9]. Used as a verb, as in "telnet to a host," it means to establish a connection across the Internet from one host to another. Usually, you must have an account on the remote host to be able to login to it once you've made a connection. However, some hosts, such as those offering white pages directories, provide public services that do not require a personal account 🌸

9. Mailing Lists and Sending Mail 💌

What is a mailing list?

Okay bestie, a mailing list is literally just an alias with multiple destinations 📬. One address, and the message fans out to everyone on it. People usually make them to talk about a specific topic, and anybody into that topic can (usually) join ✨. Some lists have membership restrictions, some have rules about what content is allowed, and some are moderated. The big "public" ones like IETF and TCP-IP usually have a second address where you send requests to get added or removed, and those are typically named like listname-request 🫶.

There's a "list-of-lists" file on the host ftp.nisc.sri.com that rounds up most of the major mailing lists, describes what each one is about, and explains how to subscribe 📚. You can grab it with anonymous ftp from the netinfo directory, where it's called interest-groups, so the path is netinfo/interest-groups. No ftp? You can get it by email too. Send a message to mail-server@nisc.sri.com with the body reading Send netinfo/interest-groups, and it'll come back in moderate-sized pieces 💖.

How do I contact the administrator of a mailing list rather than posting to the entire list?

Every list in the interest-groups file tells you how to join or send admin messages to whoever runs it 🧑‍💻. But honestly, it's pretty safe to assume you can email an address shaped like ListName-request@domain. That "-request" mailbox convention is super widely followed 🎀. Anything about using, joining, or quitting the list should go there instead of the whole list, so readers don't have to scroll past it 💀.

What are some good mailing lists?

The TCP-IP, IETF, and RFC Distribution lists are the main ones for new Internet users who want to keep up with current and emerging developments 🌈. The first two are unmoderated discussion lists, and the RFC Distribution one is an announcement service run by the RFC Editor 📢.

How do I subscribe to the TCP-IP mailing list?

To get added to TCP-IP, send a message to:

TCP-IP-REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL

How do I subscribe to the IETF mailing list?

To get added to IETF, send a message to:

IETF-REQUEST@ISI.EDU

How do I subscribe to the RFC Distribution list?

To get added to the RFC Distribution list, send a message to:

RFC-REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL

Note that all announcements on this list also go to the IETF list. So if you're already on IETF, you don't need to be on this one too 🙈.

How do I send mail to other networks?

Mail to the Internet is addressed in the form user@domain 💌. Remember that a domain name can have several components, and the name of each host is a node on the domain tree 🌳. So an example Internet mail address is june@nisc.sri.com.

Lots of networks you can reach by email from the Internet don't use the same addressing conventions the Internet does 😭. Often you have to route mail to them through specific gateways too, which makes the address even more complicated.

Here are some conventions for sending mail from the Internet to networks that Internet users often correspond with 💅.

Internet user to Internet user:

username@hostname.subdomain.toplevel domain
e.g. gsmith@nisc.sri.COM

Internet user to BITNET user:

user%site.BITNET@BITNET-GATEWAY
e.g. gsmith%emoryu1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu.
     gsmith%emoryu1@CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL.EDU

Internet user to UUCP user:

user%host.UUCP@uunet.uu.net
user%domain@uunet.uu.net

Internet user to SprintMail user:

/G=Mary/S=Anderson/O=co.abc/ADMD=SprintMail/C=US/@SPRINT.COM
-or-
/PN=Mary.Anderson/O=co.abc/ADMD=SprintMail/C=US/@SPRINT.COM
Heads up, case is significant 🚨

Internet user to CompuServe user:

Replace the comma in the CompuServe userid (shown here as x's) with a period, and add the compuserve.com domain name 🧚.

CompuServe user to Internet user:

>Internet:user@host

Insert >internet: before an Internet address.

Internet user to MCIMail user:

accountname@mcimail.com
mci_id@mcimail.com
full_user_name@mcimail.com

What is a newsgroup?

A newsgroup is basically a bulletin board 📌 where readers interested in that newsgroup's topic can read and reply to messages other readers have posted. Usually there are a few "threads" of discussion going on at the same time, but they all share some common theme 🧵. There are approximately 900 newsgroups, and more keep getting added all the time 👀.

There are two types: moderated and unmoderated 🫣. In a moderated newsgroup you can't post directly. Postings go to the newsgroup's moderator, who decides whether to pass them along to the entire group. An unmoderated newsgroup lets a reader post directly to the other readers.

How do I subscribe to a newsgroup?

You don't subscribe to a newsgroup 💅. Either you get it on your machine or you don't. If there's one you want, all you can do is ask your systems administrator to try to get it for you. The same is true for creating newsgroups 🙃.

10. Miscellaneous "Internet lore" questions 🧚

What does :-) mean?

In lots of electronic mail messages, it's useful to show that part of a message is meant as a joke 😜. It's also useful for conveying emotion that simple words don't easily get across 🥹. So a collection of "smiley faces" evolved. If you turn your head sideways to the left, :-) appears as a smiling face 🙂. Some of the more common faces are:

   :-)  smile                    :-(  frown
   :)   also a smile             ;-)  wink
   :-D  laughing                 8-)  wide-eyed
   :-}  grin                     :-X  close mouthed
   :-]  smirk                    :-o  oh, no!

What do "btw", "fyi", "imho", "wrt", and "rtfm" mean?

Internet posts are full of abbreviations 💬. btw is "by the way", fyi is "for your information", imho is "in my humble [or honest] opinion", wrt is "with respect to", and rtfm is "read the f*ing manual" 💀. The f-word gets spicier depending on how annoyed the reader is 🌶️.

What is the "FAQ" list?

This list answers the "Frequently Asked Questions" that keep popping up on various USENET newsgroups 📝. It's posted every four to six weeks to the news.announce.newusers group 📆. It's meant to give new users the background they need to learn how to use the news, and since those answers are right there, the newsgroups themselves stay less repetitive 🙌. Specific newsgroups often have and post their own versions of a FAQ list that are specific to their topics too 🎀.

Other information gets posted routinely as well 💁. Here are the subject lines of several general information postings on USENET:

   Answers to Frequently Asked Questions  (the "FAQ" list)
   Introduction to news.announce
   What is Usenet?
   Rules for posting to Usenet
   How to Create a New Newsgroup
   How to Create a New Trial Newsgroup
   A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
   Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
   Hints on writing style for Usenet
   USENET Software: History and Sources
   List of Active Newsgroups
   Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I
   Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II
   How to Construct the Mailpaths File
   Regional Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I
   Regional Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II
   Regional Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part III
   List of Moderators
   Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part I
   Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part II
   Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part III
   List of Periodic Informational Postings
   How to Get Information about Networks
   A Guide to Social Newsgroups and Mailing Lists

All of these articles are normally archived for FTP access on pit-manager.mit.edu in /pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers 🗂️.

11. Suggested Reading 📚

For further information about the Internet and its protocols in general, you may choose to obtain copies of the following works 🤓:

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.

12. References 🔖

[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 1280, Internet Activities Board, March 1992.

[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.

[8] Postel, J., "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", RFC 821, USC/Information Sciences Institute, August 1982.

[9] Postel, J., and J. Reynolds, "TELNET Protocol Specification", RFC 854, USC/Information Sciences Institute, May 1983.

[10] Postel, J., "Request for Comments on Request for Comments - Instructions to RFC Authors", RFC 1111, USC/Information Sciences Institute, August 1989.

[11] Malkin, G., A. Marine, and J. Reynolds, "FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers to Commonly Asked 'Experienced Internet User' Questions", FYI 7, RFC 1207, FTP Software, SRI, USC/Information Sciences Institute, February 1991.

[12] Postel, J., "Introduction to the STD Notes", RFC 1311, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1992.

13. Condensed Glossary 🧠

As with any profession, computers have a whole vocabulary all their own 💻. So here's a condensed glossary to help you make sense of the Internet world 🌐.

ACM — Association for Computing Machinery 🎀: a group established in 1947 to promote professional development and research on computers. Iconic longevity, no cap 💅

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. For the definition of "internet address," see below.

AI 🤖: Artificial Intelligence, the branch of computer science that deals with the simulation of human intelligence by computer systems. Main character energy 🧠✨

AIX — Advanced Interactive Executive: IBM's version of Unix 💻

ANSI — American National Standards Institute 📜: a group that certifies organizations which develop U.S. standards for the information processing industry. ANSI accredited groups take part in defining network protocol standards, so they're literally in the room where it happens 🫶

ARP — Address Resolution Protocol 🔎: an Internet protocol that runs on Ethernet and all IEEE 802.X LANs and maps internet addresses to MAC addresses. Bestie, it's the matchmaker of the LAN 💘

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 was made of individual packet switching computers interconnected by leased lines. The OG, honestly 👑

AS — Autonomous System 🦋: a collection of gateways (routers) under a single administrative authority, using a common Interior Gateway Protocol for routing packets.

ASCII — American (National) 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. Tiny, but so important 🥹

BBN — Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc. 🏛️: the Cambridge, MA company responsible for the development, operation and monitoring of the ARPANET, and later the Internet core gateway system, the CSNET Coordination and Information Center (CIC), and NSFNET Network Service Center (NNSC). Absolutely built different 🙌

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 🐡: a 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, so it's giving very big web energy 🌐

CCITT — International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee ☎️

core gateway 🏰: historically, one of a set of gateways (routers) operated by the Internet Network Operations Center at BBN. The core gateway system formed a central part of Internet routing, in that all groups had to advertise paths to their networks from a core gateway. Everyone had to check in with the core, bestie 🫡

CREN — The Corporation for Research and Educational Networking 🤝: BITNET and CSNET have recently merged to form CREN. Friendship arc complete 💖

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. The origin story, iconic 🔥

Datagram 📦: a self-contained, independent entity of data carrying sufficient information to be routed from the source to the destination data terminal equipment, without relying on earlier exchanges between this source and destination data terminal equipment and the transporting network. Every package arrives with its own full address, and that's the whole vibe 💌

DCA — Defense Communications Agency 📡: the former name of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). See DISA.

DDN — Defense Data Network 🛡️: comprises the MILNET and several other DoD networks.

DDN NIC — The network information center at Network Solutions, Inc. 📚: the primary repository for RFCs and Internet Drafts, as well as providing other services. The library of the Internet, and yes, I'm obsessed 🥰

DEC — Digital Equipment Corporation 🖥️

DECnet — Digital Equipment Corporation network 🧩: a networking protocol for DEC computers and network devices.

default route 🛣️: a routing table entry which is used to direct any data addressed to any network numbers not explicitly listed in the routing table. It's the "everything else" lane, and it's lowkey so important 🚦

DISA — Defense Information Systems Agency 🏢: formerly called DCA, this is the government agency responsible for installing the Defense Data Network (DDN) portion of the Internet, including the MILNET lines and nodes. Currently, DISA administers the DDN, and supports the user assistance services of the DDN NIC 🫡

DNS — The Domain Name System 🗺️: a mechanism used in the Internet for translating names of host computers into addresses. The DNS also allows host computers not directly on the Internet to have registered names in the same style, but it returns the electronic mail gateway which accesses the non-Internet network instead of an IP address. Names to addresses, the ultimate glow-up ✨

DOD — U.S. Department of Defense 🎖️

DOE — U.S. Department of Energy ⚡

dot address (dotted address notation) 🔢: the common notation for Internet addresses of the form A.B.C.D, where each letter represents, in decimal, one byte of the four byte IP address. Four little numbers with dots between them, so cute 🧁

Dynamic Adaptive Routing 🔄: automatic rerouting of traffic based on sensing and analysis of current actual network conditions. NOTE: this does not include cases of routing decisions taken on predefined information. So it has to be reacting to what's actually happening, not just following a script 👀

EARN — European Academic Research Network 🇪🇺

EBCDIC — Extended Binary-coded Decimal Interchange Code 🧾

EGP — Exterior Gateway Protocol 📬: a protocol which distributes routing information to the gateways (routers) that connect autonomous systems. The mail carrier between AS neighborhoods 💌

Ethernet 🔌: a network standard for the hardware and data link levels. There are two types of Ethernet: Digital/Intel/Xerox (DIX) and IEEE 802.3. Classic, reliable, always there for you 🫶

FDDI — Fiber Distributed Data Interface ⚡: FDDI is a high-speed (100Mb) token ring LAN. Speedy, and very much a token ring queen 👑

FIPS — Federal Information Processing Standard 🏛️

FTP — File Transfer Protocol 📁: the Internet standard high-level protocol for transferring files from one computer to another. Sending files, but make it official 📤

gateway — See router 🚪

GB — Gigabyte 💾: a unit of data storage size which represents 10^9 (one billion) characters of information. Lots and lots of room, bestie 🌌

Gb — Gigabit 🚄: 10^9 bits of information (usually used to express a data transfer rate; as in, 1 gigabit/second = 1Gbps).

GNU — Gnu's Not UNIX 🐃: a UNIX-compatible operating system developed by the Free Software Foundation. The name is a recursive joke, and I respect it 😭🫶

header 📮: the portion of a packet, preceding the actual data, containing source and destination addresses and error-checking fields. The packet's little cover letter, so it knows where to go and whether it arrived in one piece 💌

host number 🏷️: the part of an internet address that designates which node on the (sub)network is being addressed.

HP — Hewlett-Packard 🖨️

I/O — Input/Output 🔁

IAB — Internet Activities Board 🧭: the IAB is the coordinating committee for Internet design, engineering and management. The adults in the room, but iconic about it 👩‍💼

IBM — International Business Machines Corporation 🔵

ICMP — Internet Control Message Protocol 🚨: ICMP is an extension to the Internet Protocol. It allows for the generation of error messages, test packets and informational messages related to IP. The group chat that tells you when something went wrong 💀

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 whose purpose is to coordinate the operation, management and evolution of the Internet, and to resolve short- and mid-range protocol and architectural issues. It is a major source of proposed protocol standards, which are 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. The whole community, all in one place, obsessed 🥹🦋

internet / internetwork 🔗: any connection of two or more local or wide-area networks. Two networks holding hands counts, honestly 🫶

Internet 🌐: the global collection of interconnected local, mid-level and wide-area networks which use IP as the network layer protocol. Capital I, capital main character energy ✨

internet address 🪪: an assigned number which identifies a host in an internet. It has two or three parts: network number, optional subnet number, and host number. Like a full name with an optional middle name 🎀

IP — Internet Protocol 📨: the network layer protocol for the Internet. It is a packet switching, datagram protocol defined in RFC 791. The backbone of the whole vibe 🦴

IRTF — Internet Research Task Force 🔬: a community of network researchers, generally with an Internet focus. The work of the IRTF is governed by its Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). The research squad 🧪✨

ISO — International Organization for Standardization 📐

KB — Kilobyte 📄: a unit of data storage size which represents 10^3 (one thousand) characters of information.

Kb — Kilobit 🐢: 10^3 bits of information (usually used to express a data transfer rate; as in, 1 kilobit/second = 1Kbps = 1Kb).

LAN — Local Area Network 🏡: a network that takes advantage of the proximity of computers to offer relatively efficient, higher speed communications than long-haul or wide-area networks. Neighbors chatting over the fence, lowkey the fastest gossip 🫖

LISP — List Processing Language 🧠: a high-level computer language invented by Professor John McCarthy in 1961 to support research into computer based logic, logical reasoning, and artificial intelligence. It was the first symbolic (as opposed to numeric) computer processing language. A true pioneer, and I'm not even sorry about the parentheses 🌸

MAC — Medium Access Control 🚦: for broadcast networks, it is the method which devices use to determine which device has line access at any given time. Everyone taking turns, very polite, very fair 🙏

Mac — Apple Macintosh computer 🍎

MAN — Metropolitan Area Network 🏙️

MB — Megabyte 📀: a unit of data storage size which represents 10^6 (one million) characters of information.

  • Mb (Megabit) 💖: 10^6 bits of information. It's usually used for data transfer rates, so 1 megabit/second is written as 1Mbps ✨
  • MILNET (Military Network) 🎖️: a network for unclassified military production applications. It's part of the DDN and also part of the Internet 🌐
  • MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 🎓
  • MTTF (Mean Time to Failure) 🛠️: the average time between hardware breakdowns or losses of service. You can get it from an empirical measurement, or calculate it from the MTTF of the component parts 🧮
  • MTTR (Mean Time to Recovery, or Repair) 🔧: the average time it takes to restore service after a breakdown or loss. This is usually an empirical measurement 📊
  • MVS (Multiple Virtual Storage) 💻: 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 the addressed node belongs to 🗺️
  • NFS (Network File System) 📂: a network service that lets a program on one computer use data stored on a different computer on the same internet, as if it were on its own disk. Wild, right? 🤯
  • NIC (Network Information Center) 📮: an organization that gives network users information about the services the network provides ℹ️
  • NOC (Network Operations Center) 🛰️: an organization that's responsible for maintaining a network 💪
  • NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) 📐: formerly NBS 🕰️
  • NSF (National Science Foundation) 🔬
  • NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) 🌈: a highspeed "network of networks" with a hierarchy. At the top is a backbone network, currently made up of 16 nodes connected to a 45Mbps facility that spans the continental United States 🇺🇸. Attached to that are mid-level networks, and attached to the mid-levels are campus and local networks 🏫. NSFNET also connects out of the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the Pacific Rim 🌏. And yes, NSFNET is part of the Internet ✨
  • NSFNET Mid-level Level Network 🧩: a network connected to the top level of the NSFNET that covers a region of the United States. Local sites connect to the mid-level networks, and those were once called "regionals" 🗺️
  • 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 it'll probably adopt it as soon as possible 🇪🇺
  • OSI Reference Model 🧱: an "outline" of OSI that defines its seven layers and what each one does. It's sometimes used to help describe other networks too 📚
  • OSPF (Open Shortest-Path First Interior Gateway Protocol) 🛣️: a proposed replacement for RIP. It fixes some of RIP's problems and is built on principles that were already well-tested in non-internet protocols. It was originally acronymed as OSPFIGP 💅
  • packet 📦: the unit of data sent across a packet switching network. The term gets used loosely. Some Internet literature uses it to mean data sent across a physical network, while other literature sees the Internet itself as a packet switching network and calls IP datagrams packets 🤷‍♀️
  • PC (Personal Computer) 🖥️
  • PCNFS (Personal Computer Network File System) 💾
  • PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) 🔌: provides a method for transmitting datagrams over serial point-to-point links 🪢
  • protocol 📜: a formal description of message formats and the rules two computers have to follow to exchange those messages. Protocols can describe low-level details of machine-to-machine interfaces (for example, the order in which bits and bytes get sent across a wire), or high-level exchanges between "allocation programs" (for example, the way two programs transfer a file across the Internet) 🗂️
  • RFC (The Internet's Request for Comments documents series) 📝: the RFCs are working notes of the Internet research and development community. A document in this series can be about essentially any topic related to computer communication. It can be anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard 🌟
  • RIP (Routing Information Protocol) 🗺️: 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 intermediate level networks 🔁
  • RJE (Remote Job Entry) 🧾: the general protocol for submitting batch jobs and retrieving the results 📬
  • router 🚦: a special-purpose dedicated computer that attaches to two or more networks and routes packets from one network to the other. In particular, an Internet router forwards IP datagrams among the networks it connects. Gateways route packets to other gateways until the packets can be delivered directly to the final destination across one physical network 🛤️
  • RPC (Remote Procedure Call) 📞: an easy and popular paradigm for implementing the client-server model of distributed computing 🫶
  • server 🖧: a computer that shares its resources, such as printers and files, with other computers on the network. An example is an NFS Server, which shares its disk space with one or more workstations that may not have local disk drives of their own 💜
  • SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) 🧵: currently a defacto standard, commonly used for point-to-point serial connections running TCP/IP. It isn't an Internet standard, but it's defined in RFC 1055 📄
  • 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 the control messages they exchange to move mail 💌
  • SNA (System Network Architecture) 🏦: IBM's data communications protocol 💼
  • SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) 👀: the Simple Network Management Protocol (RFC 1157) is the Internet's standard for remote monitoring and management of hosts, routers, and other nodes and devices on a network 🕹️
  • subnet 🍰: a portion of a network, which may be a physically independent network, that 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 that designates a subnet. It's ignored for the purposes of internet routing, but it's used for intranet routing 🧭
  • 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's a connection oriented, stream protocol defined by RFC 793 🧶
  • TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) 💞: a common shorthand for the suite of application and transport protocols that run over IP. These include FTP, TELNET, SMTP, and UDP (a transport layer protocol) 🌸
  • Telenet 📞: a public packet-switching network operated by US Sprint. It's also known as "SprintNet" 🦋
  • TELNET 🖥️: the Internet standard protocol for remote terminal connection service. TELNET lets a user at one site interact with a remote timesharing system at another site, as if the user's terminal were 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 mean 802.5 🔄
  • Tymnet 🌐: a public character-switching/packet-switching network operated by British Telecom 🇬🇧
  • UDP (User Datagram Protocol) 🚀: a transport layer protocol for the Internet. It's a datagram protocol that adds a level of reliability and multiplexing to IP datagrams. It's defined in RFC 768 💫
  • ULTRIX 🐜: a 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) 🌎
  • WHOIS 🔍: an Internet program that lets users query a database of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts, kept at the DDN 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 suite developed by Xerox. It uses Ethernet to move data between computers 🧃
  • X.25 🛎️: a data communications interface specification developed to describe how data passes into and out of public data communications networks. Public networks such as Sprintnet and Tymnet use X.25 to interface with customer computers 🏢

14. Security Considerations 🔒

Security issues are not discussed in this memo. 😱

Okay, bestie, this is a big deal. Security isn't covered in this document at all, so don't assume it's handled here just because it's an RFC. Treat it seriously. 🚨

15. Authors' Addresses ✨

Gary Scott Malkin
Xylogics, Inc.
53 Third Avenue
Burlington, MA  01803

Phone:  (617) 272-8140
EMail:  gmalkin@Xylogics.COM


April N. Marine
SRI International
Network Information Systems Center
333 Ravenswood Avenue, EJ294
Menlo Park, CA  94025

Phone:  (415) 859-5318
EMail:  april@nisc.sri.com

And that's a wrap, bestie! 🌈💅🎀

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