RFC 1594
FYI on Questions and Answers - Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions
FYI on Questions and Answers ✨
Okay bestie, so this is RFC 1594 🎀 It's FYI: 4, and it's an Informational doc, which means it's giving info to the community and not specifying any Internet standard 💅 It comes from the Network Working Group and was written by A. Marine (NASA NAIC), J. Reynolds (ISI), and G. Malkin (Xylogics), dated March 1994 🦋 It obsoletes RFC 1325, so this is the newer version that replaces it 💖 Nothing in the title block says it updates another RFC, so I'm not making that up 🙈
Status of this Memo
Okay, this part is the legal-ish bit, but it's important 📜 This memo gives information to the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited 🌈
Abstract
So this is an FYI RFC and it's one of two FYIs called "Questions and Answers" (Q/A) 🧚 The User Services Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) made it. The whole point is to write down the most commonly asked questions and answers about the Internet 💜
New Questions and Answers
Besides updating the info from the previous version of this FYI RFC, a few new questions got added 🍓
Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts:
- What is the InterNIC?
Questions About Internet Services:
- What is gopher?
- What is the World Wide Web? What is Mosaic?
- How do I find out about other Internet resource discovery tools?
Table of Contents
1. Introduction................................................. 2
2. Acknowledgements............................................. 2
3. Questions About the Internet................................. 3
4. Questions About TCP/IP....................................... 5
5. Questions About the Domain Name System....................... 5
6. Questions About Internet Documentation....................... 6
7. Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts.......... 13
8. Questions About Services..................................... 18
9. Mailing Lists and Sending Mail............................... 24
10. Miscellaneous "Internet lore" questions..................... 26
11. Suggested Reading........................................... 28
12. References.................................................. 29
13. Condensed Glossary.......................................... 31
14. Security Considerations..................................... 44
15. Authors' Addresses.......................................... 441. Introduction 🌸
New users joining the Internet community have the same questions everyone else who ever joined had 😭 So the mission is to give the community up-to-date, basic Internet knowledge and experience 🫶
Future updates to this memo will happen as User Services members spot more questions that should be included, plus any deficiencies or inaccuracies that need fixing 🔥 The RFC number will change with each update, but 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] 👑
2. Acknowledgements 💅
Big thank-yous to these people for their help and contributions to this FYI Q/A: Matti Aarnio (FUNET), Susan Calcari (InterNIC), Corinne Carroll (BBN), Vint Cerf (MCI), Peter Deutsch (Bunyip), Alan Emtage (Bunyip), John Klensin (UNU), Thomas Lenggenhager (Switch), Doug Mildram (Xylogics), Tracy LaQuey Parker (Cisco), Craig Partridge (BBN), Jon Postel (ISI), Matt Power (MIT), Karen Roubicek (BBN), Patricia Smith (Merit), Gene Spafford (Purdue), and Carol Ward (Sterling Software/NASA NAIC) 🙌
3. Questions About the Internet 🌐
3.1. What is the Internet?
Okay so the Internet is a huge collection of thousands of networks linked together by a shared set of technical protocols ✨ Those protocols let users on any one of the networks talk to or use services on any of the others 🦋 They're called TCP/IP, or the TCP/IP protocol suite. The Internet started with the ARPANET, but now it includes networks like the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET), the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet), the NASA Science Internet (NSI), the Swiss Academic and Research Network (SWITCH), and about 10,000 other large and small, commercial and research, networks 💖 There are other major wide area networks that don't use TCP/IP, so they're usually not counted as part of the Internet. Still, you can talk between them and the Internet through electronic mail, because mail gateways 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 could mean networks using other protocol families that are composites built out of smaller networks.
For a longer, more detailed explanation of the Internet, check out FYI 20 (RFC 1462), "FYI on 'What is the Internet?'" [13] 📚
3.2. I just got on the Internet. What can I do now?
Congrats bestie, you're in 🎉 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 info between these hosts with 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 called remote login or "TELNETing" 💻 You can also send electronic mail to users at any Internet site, and to users on many non-Internet sites that are reachable by email 💌
There are lots of other services too 💫 For example, some hosts give you access to specialized databases or archives of information. The Internet Resource Guide has info about some of these sites, and it lists Internet facilities that are available to users, like supercomputer centers, library catalogs, and specialized data collections 🍓 The Directory Services portion of the InterNIC maintains the guide, and it's available online in a few ways. You can get it by anonymous FTP from the host ds.internic.net in the resource-guide directory. It's also readable through the InterNIC gopher, gopher internic.net. For more info, contact admin@ds.internic.net or call the InterNIC at (800) 444-4345 or (908) 668-6587 📞
These days, Internet info services are all about giving users a friendly interface to a bunch of different services ✨ The goal is to cut down on the old need for users to know which source host a service lives on and what the different command interfaces are for each type of service. The Internet Gopher, which we'll talk about more in the "Questions About Internet Services" section, is one of those services you can use as soon as you join the Internet 🧚
3.3. How do I find out if a site has a computer on the Internet?
Honestly? It's almost impossible to find out if a site has a computer on the Internet by asking some Internet service itself 😩 The most reliable way is to ask someone at the site you want to contact 🫠
Sometimes you can find out whether a site has been assigned an IP network number. That's a prerequisite for connecting an IP network to the Internet, and it's only one type of Internet access 🔍 To check, query the WHOIS database, which the Registration Services portion of the InterNIC maintains. You have a few options for how to run that query. The most common are to TELNET to the host rs.internic.net and use one of the search interfaces there, or to run a WHOIS client on your own machine and use it to query across the network 💖
The RIPE Network Coordination Center (RIPE NCC) also keeps a big database of sites they've assigned IP network numbers to 🌸 You can query it by TELNETing to info.ripe.net and stepping through the interactive interface they provide.
3.4. How do I get a list of all the hosts on the Internet?
Bestie, you really don't want that 💀 The list has more than 1.5 million hosts, and almost all of them need you to have access permission before you can actually use them 🙅♀️ If you want to know which hosts actually provide services to the Internet community, that's more useful. Try some network resource discovery tools, like gopher, to get easier access to Internet info 🧚
4. Questions About TCP/IP 🔥
4.1. 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 originally developed to connect hosts on the ARPANET, PRNET (packet radio), and SATNET (packet satellite). All three of those networks have since been retired, but TCP/IP lives on 👑 It's now used on a huge international network of networks called the Internet, whose members include universities, other research institutions, government facilities, and lots of corporations 🌈 TCP/IP is also sometimes used on other networks, especially local area networks that connect many different kinds of computers or engineering workstations 💜
4.2. What are the other well-known standard protocols in the TCP/IP family?
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 lots of other protocols in use on the Internet too 🦋 The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) regularly publishes an RFC [2] that describes where the various Internet protocols stand in standardization. It's the best guide to the current status of Internet protocols and their recommended usage 💅
5. Questions About the Domain Name System ✨
5.1 What is the Domain Name System? 🌸
okay bestie, the Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical, distributed method of organizing the name space of the Internet 🗂️💖 It administratively groups hosts into a hierarchy of authority, so addressing and other info can be widely distributed and maintained 🧚 The big slay? Using it eliminates dependence on a centrally-maintained file that maps host names to addresses. No single file running the whole show, no cap 👑
5.2 What is a Fully Qualified Domain Name? 🦋
A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is a domain name that includes all higher level domains relevant to the entity it names 💅 Picture the DNS as a tree where every node has its own label 🌳 The FQDN for a node is its label, followed by the labels of all the other nodes between it and the root of the tree.
So for a host, the FQDN has the string that identifies that particular host, plus all the domains the host is part of, up to and including the top-level domain (the root domain is always null) 🙈
Example time! atlas.arc.nasa.gov is a Fully Qualified Domain Name for the host at 128.102.128.50 ✨ and arc.nasa.gov is the FQDN for the Ames Research Center (ARC) domain under nasa.gov 🍓
6. Questions About Internet Documentation 📚
6.1 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 essentially any topic related to computer communication, anything from a meeting report to the specification of a standard 🤯 Submissions for Requests for Comments may be sent to the RFC Editor (RFC-EDITOR@ISI.EDU), and the RFC Editor is Jon Postel 🫶
Most RFCs are descriptions of network protocols or services, often giving detailed procedures and formats for their implementation 🔧 Other RFCs report on the results of policy studies or summarize the work of technical committees or workshops. All RFCs are considered public domain unless explicitly marked otherwise 🌈
While RFCs are not refereed publications, they do get technical review from either the task forces, individual technical experts, or the RFC Editor, as appropriate ✅ Currently, most standards are published as RFCs, but not all RFCs specify standards, so don't mix those up, bestie 🙈
Anyone can submit a document for publication as an RFC! Submissions must be made via electronic mail to the RFC Editor. Please consult RFC 1543, "Instructions to RFC Authors" [10], for further information. RFCs are accessible online in public access files, and a short message is sent to a notification distribution list indicating the availability of the memo. Requests to be added to this distribution list should be sent to RFC-REQUEST@NIC.DDN.MIL 📬
The online files get copied by interested people and printed or displayed at their sites on their equipment 🖨️ (An RFC may also be returned via electronic mail in response to an electronic mail query.) This means the format of the online files must meet the constraints of a wide variety of printing and display equipment. The format has to work everywhere, iykyk 💜
Once a document is assigned an RFC number and published, that RFC is never revised or re-issued with the same number 🔒 There is never a question of having the most recent version of a particular RFC. However, a protocol (such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP)) may be improved and re-documented many times in several different RFCs, so it's important to verify that you have the most recent RFC on a particular protocol 👀 The "Internet Official Protocol Standards" [2] memo is the reference for determining the correct RFC to refer to for the current specification of each protocol. Main character energy, but for documentation 🦋
6.2 How do I obtain RFCs? 📥
RFCs are available online at several repositories around the world 🌍 For a list of repositories and instructions about how to obtain RFCs from each of the major U.S. ones, send a message to rfc-info@isi.edu. As the text of the message, type help: ways_to_get_rfcs (without the quotes).
An example of obtaining RFCs online follows 👇
RFCs can be obtained via FTP from ds.internic.net with the pathname rfc/rfcNNNN.txt (where "NNNN" refers to the number of the RFC). Login using FTP, username "anonymous" and your email address as password. The Directory Services portion of the InterNIC also makes RFCs available via electronic mail, WAIS, and gopher 🌸
To obtain RFCs via electronic mail, send a mail message to mailserv@ds.internic.net and include any of the following commands in the message body:
document-by-name rfcnnnn where 'nnnn' is the RFC number
The text version is sent.
file /ftp/rfc/rfcnnnn.yyy where 'nnnn' is the RFC number.
and 'yyy' is 'txt' or 'ps'.
help to get information on how to use
the mailserver.6.3 How do I obtain a list of RFCs? 📋
Several sites make an index of RFCs available. These sites are indicated in the ways_to_get_rfcs file mentioned above and in the next question 🧚
6.4 What is the RFC-INFO service? 🤖
The Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California (ISI) has a service called RFC-INFO. Even though this is a service rather than a document, we'll talk about it in this section because it's so closely tied to RFC information 💖
RFC-INFO is an email based service to help with locating and retrieving RFCs, FYIs, STDs, and IMRs ✨ Users can ask for "lists" of all RFCs and FYIs having certain attributes ("filters") such as their ID, keywords, title, author, issuing organization, and date. Once an RFC is uniquely identified (e.g., by its RFC number), it may also be retrieved 🔍
To use the service, send email to: RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU with your requests as the text of the message. Feel free to put anything in the SUBJECT, the system ignores it 🙈 All input is case independent. Report problems to: RFC-MANAGER@ISI.EDU.
To get started, you may send a message to RFC-INFO@ISI.EDU with requests such as in the following examples (without 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]
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]6.5 Which RFCs are Standards? 🏆
See "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (currently RFC 1540) [2]. This RFC documents the status of each RFC on the Internet standards track, as well as the status of RFCs of other types 📊 It is updated periodically, so make sure you're referring to the most recent version. In addition, the RFC Index maintained at the ds.internic.net repository notes the status of each RFC listed 💅
6.6 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 'Why it was was done this way' to answers to commonly asked operational questions. The FYIs are intended for a wide audience. Some FYIs will cater to beginners, while others will discuss more advanced topics."
In general, then, FYI documents tend to be more information oriented, while RFCs are usually (but not always) more technically oriented 🧠
FYI documents are assigned both an FYI number and an RFC number 🎀
As RFCs, if an FYI is ever updated, it is issued again with a new RFC number; however, its FYI number remains unchanged. This can be a little confusing at first, but the aim is to help users identify which FYIs are about which topics. For example, FYI 4 will always be FYI 4, even though it may be updated several times and receive different RFC numbers along the way. Thus, you need only remember the FYI number to find the proper document. Of course, remembering titles often works as well 🦋
FYIs can be obtained in 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 number of the FYI without leading zeroes 🌈
6.7 What is an STD? 🎯
The newest subseries of RFCs are the STDs (Standards)! RFC 1311 [12], which introduces this subseries, states that the intent of STDs is to identify clearly those RFCs that document Internet standards. An STD number will be assigned only to those specifications that have completed the full process of standardization in the Internet. Existing Internet standards have been assigned STD numbers; a list of them can be found both in RFC 1311 and in the, "Internet Official Protocol Standards" RFC 🍓
Like FYIs, once a standard has been assigned an STD number, that number will not change, even if the standard is reworked and re-specified and later issued with a new RFC number 💜
It is important to differentiate between a "standard" and a "document" 🎀 Different RFC documents will always have different RFC numbers. Sometimes, though, the complete specification for a standard is spread across more than one RFC. When that happens, every RFC that is part of the specification carries the same STD number. For example, the Domain Name System (DNS) is specified by the combination of RFC 1034 and RFC 1035, so both of those RFCs are labeled STD 13. 💅
6.8. What is the Internet Monthly Report? 📰
Okay so the Internet Monthly Report (IMR) is how the Internet community hears about what's happening 🌸 It shares the accomplishments, milestones reached, and problems discovered by the participating organizations. Lots of organizations involved in the Internet send in monthly updates of their activities for the report. The IMR is for Internet information purposes only, so keep that in mind ✨
You can get the report online by joining the mailing list that sends it out. To be added or removed from the Internet Monthly Report list, send your request to imr-request@isi.edu 💌
Back issues are also available for anonymous FTP from the host ftp.isi.edu, in the in-notes/imr directory. The file names look like imryymm.txt, where yy is the last two digits of the year and mm is the two-digit month. For example, the July 1992 Report is in the file imr9207.txt 🦋
6.9. 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, but there are some key differences:
- The Internet Drafts are not RFCs and are not a numbered document series.
- The words
INTERNET-DRAFTappear in place ofRFC XXXXin 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. Doing so would clash 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. These drafts are the ones that will eventually be submitted to the IAB and the RFC Editor to be considered for publication as RFCs. The Internet Drafts Directories are maintained on several Internet sites, and there are a few "shadow" machines that hold copies of the IETF and Internet Drafts Directories too 💖 Here they are:
West Coast (US) Address: ftp.isi.edu (128.9.0.32)
East Coast (US) Address: ds.internic.net (198.49.45.10)
Europe Address: nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17)
Pacific Rim Address: munnari.oz.au (128.250.1.21)To get into these directories, use anonymous FTP. Log in with the username anonymous and your email address as the password (or guest if that doesn't work) 🔐 Once you're logged in, change to the directory you want with cd internet-drafts, and then you can retrieve Internet Draft files. If you change to the directory ietf instead, you can grab a file called 1id-guidelines.txt, which explains how to write and submit an Internet Draft. That file is the guidelines you're looking for 📝
6.10. 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 these places:
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) 642-4900The good news is that the GOSIP specification, which covers the use of OSI protocols within the U.S. Government, is available 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 compressedHardcopy source:
Standards Processing Coordinator (ADP)
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Technology Building, Room B-64
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
(301) 975-28167. Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts ✨
7.1. What is the IAB? 🏛️
okay so the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is all about the technical and policy stuff involved in how the Internet architecture evolves [7] 👑. IAB members are deeply committed to making the Internet actually function well and to getting it ready for a large-scale, high-speed future 🚀. The chairman serves a term of two years and is elected by the IAB members 🗳️. The IAB focuses on the TCP/IP protocol suite, plus extensions to the Internet system that support multiple protocol suites 🌈.
The IAB has a whole list of jobs 📋:
- Reviews 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, and that Steering Group reports to the IAB through its chairman 🫶. For the most part, a bunch of Research or Working Groups is the crew that actually carries out each Task Force's work program 💜.
All IAB decisions are made public 📢. The main way those decisions get spread to people who care about the Internet and its TCP/IP protocol suite is the Request for Comments (RFC) note series and the Internet Monthly Report 📰.
7.2. What is the IETF? 🌸
The Internet has grown to include a large number of widely geographically 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 a large open community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers who care about the Internet and the Internet protocol suite 🫶. The work happens in a number of working groups organized around a set of several technical areas. Each working group has a chair, and each area is managed by a technical area director 📋. The IETF overall is managed by its chair and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), which is made up of the area directors 👑.
The IAB has delegated to the IESG the general responsibility for resolving short- and mid-range protocol and architectural issues needed to make the Internet function effectively, and for developing Internet standards 💅.
7.3. What is the IRTF? 🔬
To promote research in networking and the development of new technology, the IAB established the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) 🧪. The IRTF is a set of research groups, generally with an Internet focus 🌐. Its work is governed by its Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG) 💜.
In the area of network protocols, the line between research and engineering isn't always clear, so there will sometimes be overlap between IETF and IRTF activities 🙈. There is, in fact, considerable overlap in membership between the two groups 👯. This overlap is seen as vital for cross-fertilization and technology transfer 🍓.
7.4. 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 and continued interest in, and evolution and use of, the Internet 🌷. The Society (often abbreviated ISOC) is bringing the IAB, IETF, and IRTF functions into its operation 🧚.
Here are the goals of the Society, taken straight from its charter 📜:
- A. Help the Internet technically evolve as a research and education infrastructure, and encourage the scientific community, industry, government and others to get involved in that evolution 🌱;
- B. Teach the scientific community, industry and the public at large about the technology, use and application of the Internet 📚;
- C. Promote educational applications of Internet technology for the benefit of government, colleges and universities, industry, and the public at large 🎓;
- D. Provide a forum for exploring new Internet applications, and encourage collaboration among organizations in their operational use of the global Internet 🌍.
More information about the Internet Society is available for anonymous FTP from the host isoc.org in the directory isoc.. Info is also available via the ISOC gopher, accessible via gopher isoc.org if you're running a gopher client 🐹.
7.5. What is the IANA? 🎀
The job of coordinating the assignment of values to protocol parameters was delegated by the Internet Architecture 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] documents the currently assigned values from several series of numbers used in network protocol implementations 📖. Internet addresses and Autonomous System numbers are assigned by the Registration Services portion of the InterNIC 🏷️. The IANA is located at USC/Information Sciences Institute 📍.
Current types of assignments listed in Assigned Numbers and maintained by the IANA are (yes, it's a long list, bestie 😭):
Address Resolution Protocol Parameters
BOOTP Parameters and BOOTP Extension Codes
Character Sets
Domain System Parameters
Encoding Header Field Keywords
ESMTP Mail Keywords
Ethernet Multicast Addresses
Ethernet Numbers of Interest
Ethernet Vendor Address Components
IANA Ethernet Address Block
ICMP Type Numbers
IEEE 802 Numbers of Interest
Internet Protocol Numbers
Internet Version Numbers
IP Option Numbers
IP Time to Live Parameter
IP TOS Parameters
Internet Multicast Addresses
Inverse Address Resolution Protocol
Machine Names
Mail Encryption Types
Mail System Names
Mail Transmission Types
MILNET X.25 Address Mappings
MILNET Logical Addresses
MILNET Link Numbers
MIME Types
MIME/X.400 Mapping Tables
Network Management Parameters
Novell Numbers
Operating System Names
OSPF Authentication Codes
Point-to-Point Protocol Field Assignments
Protocol Numbers
Protocol and Service Names
Protocol/Type Field Assignments
Public Data Network Numbers
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol Operation Codes
SUN RPC Numbers
TCP Option Numbers
TCP Alternate Checksum Numbers
TELNET Options
Terminal Type Names
Version Numbers
Well Known and Registered Port Numbers
X.25 Type Numbers
XNS Protocol TypesFor more info on number assignments, contact IANA@ISI.EDU 💌.
7.6. What is a NIC? What is a NOC? 🗺️
"NIC" stands for Network Information Center. It's an organization that gives network users info about the services provided by the network 📡.
"NOC" stands for Network Operations Center. It's an organization that's responsible for maintaining a network 🔧.
For many networks, especially smaller, local ones, the functions of the NIC and NOC are combined 🤝. For larger networks, like mid-level and backbone networks, the NIC and NOC organizations are separate, but they still need to interact to fully perform their functions 🫂.
7.7. What is the InterNIC? 🌟
The InterNIC is a five year project, partially supported by the National Science Foundation, to provide network information services to the networking community 💫. It began operations in April of 1993 and is a collaborative project of three organizations 🤝:
- General Atomics provides Information Services from their location in San Diego, CA
- AT&T provides Directory and Database Services from South Plainsfield, NJ
- Network Solutions, Inc. provides Registration Services from their headquarters in Herndon, VA
Services come through the network electronically, and also by telephone, FAX 📠, and hardcopy documentation 📄.
General Atomics offers Information Services and acts as the "NIC of first and last resort" 🆘, providing a Reference Desk for new and experienced users, and for midlevel and campus NICs. The InterNIC Reference Desk offers introductory materials and pointers to network resources and tools 📚.
AT&T services include the Directory of Directories, Directory Services, and Database Services to store data available to all Internet users 🗂️.
Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) provides Internet registration services, including IP address allocation, domain registration, and Autonomous System Number assignment 🏷️. NSI also tracks points of contact for networks and domain servers, and provides online and telephone support for questions related to IP address or domain name registration 💁.
All three portions of the InterNIC can be reached by calling (800) 444-4345 or by sending a message to info@internic.net 📞. Callers from outside the U.S. can telephone +1 (619) 445-4600 🌎. Extensive online information is available at host is.internic.net, accessible via gopher or TELNET 💻.
7.8. What is the DDN NIC (nic.ddn.mil)? 🎖️
The DDN NIC is the Defense Data Network NIC. Until the formation of the InterNIC, the DDN NIC had been responsible for many services to the whole Internet, especially registration services 📜. Now it focuses on serving its primary constituency of MILNET users 🪖. Its host is nic.ddn.mil, but the address hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil may still show up in older Internet registration documentation 👀. The DDN NIC maintains close ties to the newer InterNIC 🤝.
7.9. 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 delegates some number assignment authority to regional registries, such as NCC@RIPE.NET and APNIC-STAFF@APNIC.NET 🌏. However, it will continue to gather data regarding those assignments 👀. At present, the Registration Services portion of the InterNIC at Network Solutions, Inc. serves as the IR 💅.
8. Questions About Services 🛎️
8.1. How do I find someone's electronic mail address? 💌
There are a number of directories on the Internet, but ngl, none of them are complete 😭. Still, you can find lots of people through the InterNIC WHOIS services or KNOWBOT 🔍. Generally, you still have to ask the person for their email address 💌.
8.2. How do I use the WHOIS program at the InterNIC Registration Services? 🔎
There are a few ways to search the WHOIS database 💖. You can TELNET to the InterNIC registration host, rs.internic.net. There's no need to login, bestie 🙌. Type whois to call up the information retrieval program, or choose one of the other options presented to you. Help is available for each option 🧚. You can also run a client of the WHOIS server and point it at any whois database you'd like to search. Pointing a client at the whois server ds.internic.net lets you query the databases at three hosts: ds.internic.net, rs.internic.net, and nic.ddn.mil ✨.
For more information, contact the InterNIC at (800) 444-4345 or the registration services group at (703) 742-4777 📞.
8.3. How do I use the Knowbot Information Service? 🤖
The Knowbot Information Service is a white pages "meta-service" 🪄 that provides a uniform interface to heterogeneous white pages services on the Internet. It's giving one-stop-shop energy 👑. With it, you can form a single query that searches for white pages information from the NIC WHOIS service, the PSI White Pages Pilot Project, and MCI Mail, among others, and then get the responses displayed in one single, uniform format 🎀.
Right now, you can access the Knowbot Information Service through TELNET to port 185 on the hosts cnri.reston.va.us and sol.bucknell.edu. From a UNIX host, use telnet cnri.reston.va.us 185 💻. There's also an electronic mail interface. You can send mail to netaddress at either cnri.reston.va.us or sol.bucknell.edu 📬.
The commands help and man summarize the command interface 📖. If you just enter a user name at the prompt, it searches a default list of Internet directory services for the requested information 🦋. 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 that these are not Domain Names. They're just a syntax for specifying an organization and a country for the search 🙈.
8.4. What is the White Pages at PSI? 📒
Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSI), sponsors a White Pages Project 🌈 that collects personnel information 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 access the data, TELNET to WP.PSI.COM and login as fred (no password is necessary) 💅. You can now look up information on participating organizations, and the program has help on usage. For example, typing help shows you a list of commands, manual gives detailed documentation, and whois tells you how to find references to people 🫶. For a list of the organizations participating in the pilot project by providing information about their members, type whois -org * 🍓.
You can also access the White Pages data with programs that act as X.500 Directory User Agent (DUA) clients 🧚.
For more information, send a message to WP-INFO@PSI.COM 💌.
8.5. What is USENET? What is Netnews? 📰
USENET is the formal name, and Netnews is a common informal name, for a distributed computer information service that some hosts on the Internet use 🌐. Honestly, the vibe is that USENET handles only news and not mail 📭. It uses a variety of underlying networks for transport, including parts of the Internet, BITNET, and others 🛣️. Netnews can be a valuable tool to economically transport traffic that would otherwise be sent via mail 💸. And USENET has no central administration 🕊️.
8.6. How do I get a Netnews feed? 🍽️
To get a Netnews feed, you have to acquire the server software, which is available for some computers at no cost 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 extra traffic over your existing Internet access channels 🛜.
One well-known anonymous FTP archive site for software and information about USENET is ftp.uu.net. There's a "news" directory in there with lots of software distribution and information sub-directories 📂.
It is recommended that new users subscribe to and read news.announce.newusers, since it will help them get oriented to USENET and the Internet 🌟.
8.7. What is a newsgroup? 💬
A newsgroup is a bulletin board 📌 where readers interested in that newsgroup's particular topic can read and respond to messages posted by other readers. Generally, a few "threads" of discussion are going on at the same time, but they all share a common theme 🧵. There are approximately 900 newsgroups, and more are being added all the time 📈.
There are two types of newsgroups: moderated and unmoderated 👀. In a moderated newsgroup, individuals can't post directly to the newsgroup. Instead, postings go to the newsgroup's moderator, who decides whether or not to pass the posting along to the entire group 🧑⚖️. In an unmoderated newsgroup, a reader can post directly to the other readers 🗣️.
8.8. 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 the systems administrator to try to get it for you 🥺.
8.9. 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] 🦋. Lots of sites offer anonymous FTP to distribute software and all kinds of information 🎁. You use it like any FTP, but the username is anonymous. Many systems will ask that the password you choose is your email address 💌. If that fails, the generic password is usually guest 🔑.
8.10. What is "archie"? 🏹
The archie system was created to automatically track anonymous FTP archive sites, and that's still its primary function 🕵️♀️. The system currently makes available the names and locations of some 2,100,000 files at some 1,000 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" a site's complete listing in search of information of interest, or to 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 🔁.
8.11. 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 available 🧰. The use of a client is strongly encouraged. Right now there are 22 archie servers located throughout the world 🌍.
To try the TELNET interface, you can TELNET to one of the 22 archie servers (preferably the one nearest you, and during non-peak hours) ⏰. Log in as archie (no password is required). Type help to get you started 🌱.
Here is a list of archie servers as of the date this was written 📋:
archie.au* 139.130.4.6 Australia
archie.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at* 140.78.3.8 Austria
archie.univie.ac.at* 131.130.1.23 Austria
archie.uqam.ca* 132.208.250.10 Canada
archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 Finland
archie.th-darmstadt.de* 130.83.22.60 Germany
archie.ac.il* 132.65.6.15 Israel
archie.unipi.it* 131.114.21.10 Italy
archie.wide.ad.jp 133.4.3.6 Japan
archie.hana.nm.kr* 128.134.1.1 Korea
archie.sogang.ac.kr* 163.239.1.11 Korea
archie.uninett.no* 128.39.2.20 Norway
archie.rediris.es* 130.206.1.2 Spain
archie.luth.se* 130.240.18.4 Sweden
archie.switch.ch* 130.59.1.40 Switzerland
archie.ncu.edu.tw* 140.115.19.24 Taiwan
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk* 146.169.11.3 United Kingdom
archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 USA (NE)
archie.internic.net* 198.48.45.10 USA (NJ)
archie.rutgers.edu* 128.6.18.15 USA (NJ)
archie.ans.net 147.225.1.10 USA (NY)
archie.sura.net* 128.167.254.179 USA (MD)Note: Sites marked with an asterisk "*" run archie version 3.0 🏷️.
You can get details on using the electronic mail interface by sending mail to archie at any of the above server hosts 📨. Put the word help as the text of your message for directions 🆘.
Questions, comments, and suggestions can be sent to the archie development group by mailing info@bunyip.com 💕.
8.12. What is "gopher"? 🐹
The Internet Gopher presents an extremely wide variety of types of information in an easy to use, menu-driven interface 🍭. Gopher servers link information from all around the Internet in a way that can be transparent to the user. (Users can easily discover the source of any piece of information, however, if they wish 🔍.) For example, gopher links databases of every type, applications, white pages directories, sounds, and pictures 🖼️.
Some gophers are available via TELNET. Since most gophers are linked to other gophers, if you can get to one, you can get to many 🕸️. You can, for example, telnet to naic.nasa.gov and use their public gopher 🚀.
The best way to use the gopher service, like with all client/server type services, is running your own gopher client 💻. The Internet Gopher was developed at the University of Minnesota. More information is available for anonymous FTP on the host boombox.micro.umn.edu 📼.
8.13. What is the World Wide Web? What is Mosaic? 🕸️
The World Wide Web is a distributed, hypermedia-based Internet information browser 🌏. It presents users with a friendly point-and-click interface to a wide variety of types of information (text, graphics, sounds, movies, etc.) and Internet services 🎬. It's possible to use the Web to access FTP archives, databases, and even gopher servers 🤩.
The most familiar implementations of the World Wide Web are the Mosaic clients developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) 🏆. Mosaic software is available online at ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu 💜.
8.14. How do I find out about other Internet resource discovery tools? 🔭
The field of Internet resource discovery tools is literally one of the most dynamic corners of the Internet rn 🔥. There are a bunch more tools besides the ones we talked about here that are super handy for finding and searching Internet resources ✨. The EARN (European Academic and Research Network) Association put together an iconic document that introduces lots of these services and tells you how to learn more about them 📚. To grab it, send a message to listserv@earncc.bitnet (or listserve%earncc.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu, if that's your vibe 💅). As the text of your message, type GET filename, where filename is either nettools ps or nettols memo. The first one is in PostScript format 🖨️. You can also snag it with anonymous FTP on some hosts, like naic.nasa.gov, where it lives in the files/general_info directory as earn-resource-tool-guide.ps and earn-resource-tool-guide.txt 🌸.
8.15. What is "TELNET"? 📞
So "TELNET" is basically the name for remote login across the Internet, and it's possible because of the TELNET Protocol [9] 🦋. When people use it as a verb, like "telnet to a host," they mean making a connection across the Internet from one host to another 💜. Usually you gotta have an account on the remote host so you can log in once you've connected 🔑. BUT some hosts, like the ones offering white pages directories, offer public services that don't need a personal account 🙌.
If your host supports TELNET, you'd probably type something like one of these to connect to a remote host:
telnet <hostname>
telnet <host IP address>For example, you could type telnet rs.internic.net or telnet 198.41.0.5 💻✨.
9. Mailing Lists and Sending Mail 💌
9.1. What is a mailing list? 📬
A mailing list is an email address that stands for a whole group of people instead of just one person 👯♀️. Lists are usually made to talk about a specific topic, and anybody who's into that topic can (usually) join 🧚. Some lists have membership restrictions, some restrict what message content is allowed, and some are moderated 🛡️. Most "public" mailing lists also have a second email address just for admin stuff, like requests to get added or removed 📋. All subscription requests should be sent to that admin address, not to the list itself! 🙅♀️
9.2. How do I contact the administrator of a mailing list rather than posting to the entire list? 🙋
Right now there are two main ways mailing list admins handle requests to subscribe or unsubscribe 🧐. For a lot of lists, the admin address is the list name with "-request" tacked onto the end. So if you want to join ietf-announce@cnri.reston.va.us, you'd send your message to ietf-announce-request@cnri.reston.va.us. Most of the time a human handles "-request" mailboxes, so you can just write your request like a normal message 💌.
More and more (especially for lists with tons of readers), admins want a program to handle the routine list stuff 🤖. A lot of lists run on LISTSERV or other mailing list manager programs. When that's the case, the admin address is usually something like listserv@host.domain, while the list itself is list@host.domain. One LISTSERV address can handle requests for every mailing list on that host 🫶. When you're talking to a program, your subscription request often looks like subscribe ListName YourFirstName YourLastName. Just swap in the list's name for ListName and put your real name at the end ✍️.
The big thing to remember: all admin messages about using, joining, or quitting a list should be sent to the admin mailbox instead of the whole list, so that the readers of the list don't have to read them 🙈💕.
9.3. How do I send mail to other networks? ✈️
Mail to the Internet is addressed in the form user@host.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 💌.
There are a bunch of other networks you can email from the Internet, but a lot of them don't use the same addressing conventions the Internet does 😵💫. Often you also have to route mail to those networks through specific gateways, which makes the address even more complicated 💀.
Here are a few conventions for sending mail from the Internet to networks that Internet users often write to 🫠:
Internet user to Internet user:
username@hostname.subdomain.toplevel domain
e.g. gsmith@nisc.sri.COMInternet user to BITNET user:
user%site.BITNET@BITNET-GATEWAY
e.g. gsmith%emoryu1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu.
gsmith%emoryu1@CORNELLC.CIT.CORNELL.EDUInternet user to UUCP user:
user%host.UUCP@uunet.uu.net
user%domain@uunet.uu.netInternet 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
(Case is significant.)Internet user to CompuServe user:
Swap the comma in the CompuServe userid (shown here as x's) for a period, and tack on the compuserve.com domain name 💬.
xxxx.xxxx@compuserve.comCompuServe user to Internet user:
Just insert >internet: before an Internet address, like this 🦄:
>Internet:user@hostInternet user to MCIMail user:
accountname@mcimail.com
mci_id@mcimail.com
full_user_name@mcimail.com.10. Miscellaneous "Internet lore" questions 🧚
10.1. What does :-) mean? 😊
In lots of emails it's helpful to show that part of a message is meant as a joke 🃏. It's also handy for showing feelings that plain words can't quite capture 🥹. To cover that, 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 ones are:
:-) smile :-( frown
:) also a smile ;-) wink
:-D laughing 8-) wide-eyed
:-} grin :-X close mouthed
:-] smirk :-o oh, no!10.2. What do "btw", "fyi", "imho", "wrt", and "rtfm" mean? 🤓
Common expressions get abbreviated all the time in casual network posts 💅. btw stands for "by the way," fyi for "for your information," imho for "in my humble [or honest] opinion," and wrt for "with respect to." rtfm stands for "read the f*ing manual," with the "f" word depending on how vehemently the reader feels about it 😤😂.
10.3. What is the "FAQ" list? 📝
This list answers the "Frequently Asked Questions" that pop up on various USENET newsgroups 🙋♀️. It gets posted every four to six weeks to the news.announce.newusers group 📅. It's meant to give new users a background as they learn how to use the news. Since the FAQ answers those questions for newbies, the newsgroups themselves stay less repetitive 🧹. Specific newsgroups often have their own FAQ versions tailored to their topics. The term FAQ has become so generalized that any topic can have its own FAQ, even if it isn't a newsgroup 🌈.
Here's how to get the USENET FAQs, courtesy of Gene Spafford 🫶:
Lots of questions can be answered by checking the most recent postings in the news.announce.newusers and news.lists groups. If those postings have expired at your site, or you don't get news at all, you can grab archived postings from the FTP server on the host rtfm.mit.edu.
These archived postings include all the Frequently Asked Questions posted to the news.answers newsgroups, plus the most recent lists of Usenet newsgroups, Usenet-accessible mailing lists, group moderators, and other Usenet-related info posted to news.announce.newusers and news.lists.
To get the material by FTP, log in using anonymous FTP, with anonymous as the userid and your email address as the password 🔐.
The archived files, and FAQ files from other newsgroups, are all in this directory:
/pub/usenet/news.answersArchived files from news.announce.newusers and news.lists are in these two places, respectively:
/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers
/pub/usenet/news.listsTo get the info by mail, send an email message to mail-server@pit-manager.mit.edu containing:
send usenet/news.answers/TITLE/PARTwhere TITLE is the archive title, and PART is the portion of the posting you want 🎯.
Send a message containing help to get general info about the mail server, including how to get a list of archive titles to use in further send commands 📬.
11. Suggested Reading 📚
For more info about the Internet and its protocols in general, you can grab copies of the following works, as well as some of the works listed as References 🤓:
- Krol, Ed. (1992) The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog, 400 p. O'Reilly and Assoc., Inc. Sebastopol, CA.
- Dern, Daniel P. (1993) The Internet Guide for New Users, 570 p. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, NY.
- Fisher, Sharon. (1993) Riding the Internet Highway, 266 p. New Riders Publishing, Carmel, IN.
- Frey, Donnalyn and Rick Adams. (1993) !%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks, (third edition) 443 p. O'Reilly & Assoc., Inc. Sebastopol, CA.
- Hoffman, Ellen and Lenore Jackson. (1993) "FYI on Introducing the Internet: A Short Bibliography of Introductory Internetworking Readings for the Network Novice," 4 p. (FYI 19/RFC 1463).
- Kehoe, Brendan P. (1993) Zen and the Art of the Internet: A Beginner's Guide, (second edition) 112 p. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
- LaQuey, Tracy with Jeanne C. Ryer. (1992) The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking, 208 p. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
- Malkin, Gary, S. and Tracy LaQuey Parker. (1993) "Internet Users' Glossary," 53 p. (FYI 18/RFC 1392).
- Marine, April, et al. (1993) Internet: Getting Started, 360 p. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
- Martin, Jerry. (1993) "There's Gold in them thar Networks! or Searching for Treasure in all the Wrong Places," 39 p. (FYI 10/RFC 1402).
- Quarterman, John. (1993) "Recent Internet Books," 15 p. (RFC 1432).
12. References 📚
okay bestie, here's the reading list 🧚 these are the sources the RFC cites, and every detail is kept exactly as written.
- [1] Reynolds, J., and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers", STD 2, RFC 1340, USC/Information Sciences Institute, July 1992.
- [2] Postel, J., Editor, "Internet Official Protocol Standards", STD 1, RFC 1540, Internet Architecture Board, October 1993.
- [3] Postel, J., and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol (FTP), STD 9, RFC 959, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1985.
- [4] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol - DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification", STD 5, RFC 791, DARPA, September 1981.
- [5] Postel, J., "Transmission Control Protocol - DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification", STD 7, RFC 793, DARPA, September 1981.
- [6] Leiner, B., Cole, R., Postel, J., 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", STD 10, RFC 821, USC/Information Sciences Institute, August 1982.
- [9] Postel, J., and J. Reynolds, "TELNET Protocol Specification", STD 8, RFC 854, USC/Information Sciences Institute, May 1983.
- [10] Postel, J., "Instructions to RFC Authors", RFC 1543, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1993.
- [11] Malkin, G., Marine, A., 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] Krol, E., and E. Hoffman, "FYI on 'What is the Internet?'", FYI 20, RFC 1462, University of Illinois, Merit Network, Inc., May 1993.
13. Condensed Glossary 💅
okay so every profession has its own vocab, and computers are literally no exception 🫶 the glossary below is a condensed guide to help you make sense of the Internet world. it's giving decoder ring ✨
ACM = Association for Computing Machinery 🎀 a group established in 1947 to promote professional development and research on computers.
address 🏠 there are three types of addresses in common use within the Internet: email address; IP, internet or Internet address; and hardware or MAC 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. a MAC address is the hardware address of a device connected to a shared media. 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 📏 this organization is responsible for approving U.S. standards in many areas, including computers and communications. standards approved by this organization are often called ANSI standards (e.g., ANSI C is the version of the C language approved by ANSI). ANSI is a member of ISO. see also: International Organization for Standardization.
ARP = Address Resolution Protocol 🔍 used to dynamically discover the low level physical network hardware address that corresponds to the high level IP address for a given host. ARP is limited to physical network systems that support broadcast packets that can be heard by all hosts on the network. it is defined in STD 37, RFC 826.
ARPA = Advanced Research Projects Agency 🛰️ an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. ARPA was responsible for funding much of the development of the Internet we know today, including the Berkeley version of Unix and TCP/IP.
ARPANET = Advanced Research Projects Agency Network 🌐 a pioneering longhaul 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.
AS = Autonomous System 🗺️ a collection of routers under a single administrative authority using a common Interior Gateway Protocol for routing packets.
ASCII = American (National) Standard Code for Information Interchange 🔤 a standard character-to-number encoding widely used in the computer industry.
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 NSFNET Network Service Center (NNSC).
BITNET 🎓 an academic computer network that provides interactive electronic mail and file transfer services, using a store-and-forward protocol, based on IBM Network Job Entry protocols. BITNET-II encapsulates the BITNET protocol within IP packets and depends on the Internet to route them. 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 😈 implementation of the UNIX operating system and its utilities developed and distributed by the University of California at Berkeley. "BSD" is usually preceded by the version number of the distribution, e.g., "4.3 BSD" is version 4.3 of the Berkeley UNIX distribution. many Internet hosts run BSD software, and it is the ancestor of many commercial UNIX implementations.
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 Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee 📞 this organization is part of the United National International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and is responsible for making technical recommendations about telephone and data communications systems.
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 had to advertise paths to their networks from a core gateway.
CREN = The Corporation for Research and Educational Networking 🤝 this organization was formed in October 1989, when BITNET and CSNET (Computer + Science NETwork) were combined under one administrative authority. CSNET is no longer operational, but CREN still runs BITNET. see also: BITNET.
DARPA = see ARPA. 🔁
Datagram 📦 a self-contained, independent entity of data carrying sufficient information to be routed from the source to the destination computer without reliance on earlier exchanges between this source and destination computer and the transporting network. main character energy, no notes 👑
DCA = Defense Communications Agency 🪦 former name of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). see DISA.
DDN = Defense Data Network 🛡️ a global communications network serving the US Department of Defense composed of MILNET, other portions of the Internet, and classified networks which are not part of the Internet. the DDN is used to connect military installations and is managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). see also: DISA.
DDN NIC = The Defense Data Network Network Information Center 📚 the network information center at Network Solutions, Inc., funded by DISA, that provides information services to the DDN community. it is also a primary repository for RFCs, and a delegated registration authority for military networks.
DEC = Digital Equipment Corporation 💻
DECnet = Digital Equipment Corporation network 🔌 a proprietary network protocol designed by Digital Equipment Corporation. the functionality of each Phase of the implementation, such as Phase IV and Phase V, is different.
default route 🛣️ a routing table entry which is used to direct packets addressed to networks not explicitly listed in the routing table.
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 is a general purpose distributed, replicated, data query service. the principal use is the lookup of host IP addresses based on host names. the style of host names now used in the Internet is called "domain name", because they are the style of names used to look up anything in the DNS. some important domains are: .COM (commercial), .EDU (educational), .NET (network operations), .GOV (U.S. government), and .MIL (U.S. military). most countries also have a domain. for example, .US (United States), .UK (United Kingdom), .AU (Australia). it is defined in STD 13, RFCs 1034 and 1035.
DOD = U.S. Department of Defense 🎖️
DOE = U.S. Department of Energy ⚡
dot address (dotted address notation) 🔢 dot address refers to the common notation for IP addresses of the form A.B.C.D; where each letter represents, in decimal, one byte of a four byte IP address.
Dynamic Adaptive Routing 🔄 automatic rerouting of traffic based on a sensing and analysis of current actual network conditions. NOTE: this does not include cases of routing decisions taken on predefined information. ⚠️
EARN = European Academic Research Network 🇪🇺
EBCDIC = Extended Binary-coded Decimal Interchange Code 🖨️ a standard character-to-number encoding used primarily by IBM computer systems. see also: ASCII.
EGP = Exterior Gateway Protocol 🚪 a protocol which distributes routing information to the routers which connect autonomous systems. the term "gateway" is historical, as "router" is currently the preferred term. there is also a routing protocol called EGP defined in STD 18, RFC 904. more glossary coming in the next part, so stay tuned 🫶
Ethernet 🔌 okay so this is a 10-Mb/s standard for LANs, first cooked up by Xerox and then glowed up by Digital, Intel and Xerox (DIX). All the hosts hook into one coaxial cable and fight for network access using Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD). Iconic, honestly 💅
FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface 🌈 A high-speed (100Mb/s) LAN standard. It runs over fiber optics, and the topology is a dual-attached, counter-rotating token ring. Main character energy ✨
FIPS Federal Information Processing Standard 🧾
FTP File Transfer Protocol 📁 This one lets a user on one host access another host over a network and transfer files to and from it. FTP is also usually the name of the program you open to run the protocol 💖 It is defined in STD 9, RFC 959.
gateway See router. 🚪
GB Gigabyte 💾 A unit of data storage size that represents 10^9 (one billion) characters of information.
Gb Gigabit 🚀 10^9 bits of information. It's usually used for data transfer rates, like 1 gigabit/second = 1Gbps.
GNU Gnu's Not UNIX 🐃 A UNIX-compatible operating system developed by the Free Software Foundation. Iykyk 🫶
header The part of a packet that comes before the actual data, containing source and destination addresses, error checking, and other fields 📦 A header is also the part of an email message that comes before the body and includes, among other things, the message originator, date and time. Lowkey the same vibe, just a different outfit 🎀
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 Architecture Board 👑 This is the technical body that oversees the development of the Internet suite of protocols. It has two task forces: the IETF and the IRTF.
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. It is defined in STD 5, RFC 792.
IEEE Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers ⚡
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force 🌸 The IETF is a huge, 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 Engineering Steering Group for final approval. The IETF meets three times a year, and extensive minutes of the plenary proceedings are issued. Obsessed, honestly 😭
internet internetwork While an internet is a network, the term "internet" is usually used for a collection of networks interconnected with routers 🕸️
Internet The Internet (note the capital "I") is the largest internet in the world 🌍 It's a three level hierarchy made up of backbone networks (e.g., NSFNET, MILNET), mid-level networks, and stub networks. The Internet is a multiprotocol internet. The way it's built is so iconic 👑
internet address The 32-bit address defined by the Internet Protocol in STD 5, RFC 791. It's usually written in dotted decimal notation. An internet, or IP, address uniquely identifies a node on an internet 📍
IP Internet Protocol 💌 The Internet Protocol, defined in STD 5, RFC 791, is the network layer for the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. It's a connectionless, best-effort packet switching protocol. Lowkey underrated 🥹
IRTF Internet Research Task Force 🔬 The IRTF is chartered by the IAB to look at long-term Internet issues from a theoretical point of view. It has Research Groups, which are kind of like IETF Working Groups, and each one is tasked with discussing a different research topic. Multi-cast audio/video conferencing and privacy enhanced mail are samples of IRTF output 🎥✉️
ISO International Organization for Standardization 🌐 This is a voluntary, nontreaty organization founded in 1946. It's responsible for creating international standards in many areas, including computers and communications. Its members are the national standards organizations of the 89 member countries, including ANSI for the U.S.
KB Kilobyte 📱 A unit of data storage size that represents 10^3 (one thousand) characters of information.
Kb Kilobit 🐢 10^3 bits of information. It's usually used for data transfer rates, like 1 kilobit/second = 1Kbps = 1Kb.
LAN Local Area Network 🏘️ A data network meant to serve an area of only a few square kilometers or less. Because it only covers a small area, optimizations can be made in the network signal protocols that permit data rates up to 100Mb/s. Small but mighty 💪
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. Historic icon 🏛️
MAC Medium Access Control 🧩 This is the lower portion of the datalink layer. The MAC differs for various physical media.
Mac Apple Macintosh computer 🍎
MAN Metropolitan Area Network 🏙️ A data network meant to serve an area about the size of a large city. These are being built with innovative techniques, like running fiber cables through subway tunnels 🚇 A popular example of a MAN is SMDS.
MB Megabyte 🎞️ A unit of data storage size that represents 10^6 (one million) characters of information.
Mb Megabit 🌷 10^6 bits of information. It's usually used for data transfer rates, like 1 megabit/second = 1Mbps.
MILNET Military Network 🎖️ A network used for unclassified military production applications. It is part of the DDN and the Internet.
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology 🎓
MTTF Mean Time to Failure ⏳ The average time between hardware breakdowns or losses of service. This may be an empirical measurement or a calculation based on the MTTF of 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 network portion of an IP address. For a class A network, the network address is the first byte of the IP address. For a class B network, the network address is the first two bytes of the IP address. For a class C network, the network address is the first three bytes of the IP address. In each case, the remainder is the host address. In the Internet, assigned network addresses are globally unique 🌏🔑
NFS Network File System 📂 A protocol developed by Sun Microsystems and defined in RFC 1094. It lets a computer system access files over a network as if they were on its local disks. More than two hundred companies have put this protocol into their products, and it's now a de facto Internet standard. Everybody's using it, periodt 💅
NIC Network Information Center 🗺️ An organization that provides information, assistance and services to network users.
NOC Network Operations Center 🛰️ A location from which the operation of a network or internet is monitored. This center usually also serves as a clearinghouse for connectivity problems and efforts to resolve those problems. The control room of the whole thing 🫡
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology 🏛️ A United States governmental body that provides assistance in developing standards. It was formerly the National Bureau of Standards (NBS).
NSF National Science Foundation 🔭 A U.S. government agency whose purpose is to promote the advancement of science. NSF funds science researchers, scientific projects, and infrastructure to improve the quality of scientific research. The NSFNET, funded by NSF, is an essential part of academic and research communications 🎓💜
NSFNET National Science Foundation Network 🕷️ The NSFNET is a highspeed "network of networks" that's hierarchical in nature. At the top is a backbone network 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 has connections out of the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. The NSFNET is part of the Internet 🌊
NSFNET Mid-level Level Network 🧃 A network connected to the highest level of the NSFNET that covers a region of the United States. Local sites connect to the mid-level networks. The mid-level networks were once called "regionals" 🗺️
OSI Open Systems Interconnection 🧵 A suite of protocols, designed by ISO committees, meant to be the international standard computer network architecture.
OSI Reference Model 🍰 A seven-layer structure designed to describe computer network architectures and the way that data passes through them. The ISO developed this model in 1978 to clearly define the interfaces in multivendor networks, and to give users of those networks conceptual guidelines for building them.
OSPF Open Shortest-Path First Interior Gateway Protocol 🛣️ A link state, as opposed to distance vector, routing protocol. It is an Internet standard IGP defined in RFC 1247.
packet The unit of data sent across a network 📬 "Packet" is a generic term used to describe a unit of data at all levels of the protocol stack, but it's most correctly used to describe application data units.
PC Personal Computer 💻
PCNFS Personal Computer Network File System 🗃️
PPP Point-to-Point Protocol 🔗 The Point-to-Point Protocol, defined in RFC 1548, provides a method for transmitting packets over serial point-to-point links.
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). The rulebook, bestie 📖
RFC The document series, begun in 1969, which describes the Internet suite of protocols and related experiments 📜 Not all RFCs (in fact very few) describe Internet standards, but all Internet standards are written up as RFCs. The OG paper trail ✨
RIP Routing Information Protocol 🐦 A distance vector, as opposed to link state, routing protocol. It is an Internet standard IGP defined in STD 34, RFC 1058 (updated by RFC 1388).
RJE Remote Job Entry 📨 The general protocol for submitting batch jobs and retrieving the results. Queue it up and wait for the drop 🧚
router 🦋 A device that forwards traffic between networks! The forwarding decision is based on network layer information and routing tables, which are often built by routing protocols. Main character energy ✨
RPC: Remote Procedure Call 💌 An easy, super popular paradigm for the client-server model of distributed computing. Usually a request goes to a remote system to run a designated procedure, using the arguments supplied, and the result comes back to the caller. There are SO many variations and subtleties between implementations that you end up with a bunch of different (incompatible) RPC protocols. Not the vibe 💀
server 🫶 A provider of resources, like file servers and name servers.
SLIP: Serial Line Internet Protocol 🔌 A protocol for running IP over serial lines, like telephone circuits or RS-232 cables, connecting two systems. SLIP is defined in STD 47, RFC 1055.
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol 💌 A protocol, defined in STD 10, RFC 821, used to transfer electronic mail between computers. It's a server to server protocol, so other protocols are needed to access the messages.
SNA: Systems Network Architecture 🏢 A proprietary networking architecture used by IBM and IBM-compatible mainframe computers.
SNMP: Simple Network Management Protocol 🎀 The Internet standard protocol, defined in STD 15, RFC 1157, developed to manage nodes on an IP network. It is currently possible to manage wiring hubs, toasters, jukeboxes, etc. 🍞🎶 lowkey iconic
subnet 🌸 A portion of a network, which may even be a physically independent network, that shares a network address with other portions of the network and is told apart by a subnet number. A subnet is to a network what a network is to an internet. Nested energy 🪆
subnet number A part of the internet address that designates a subnet. It's ignored for internet routing purposes, but it's used for intranet routing.
T1 📡 An AT&T 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 🦋 An Internet Standard transport layer protocol defined in STD 7, RFC 793. It's connection-oriented and stream-oriented, as opposed to UDP.
TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol 🧚 This is 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 switched network using the CCITT X.25 protocols. It should not be confused with Telnet, bestie!
TELNET 🖥️ Telnet is the Internet standard protocol for remote terminal connection service. It is defined in STD 8, RFC 854 and extended with options by many other RFCs.
Token Ring 💍 A token ring is a type of LAN with nodes wired into a ring. Each node constantly passes a control message (token) on to the next, and whichever node has the token can send a message. Often, "Token Ring" refers to the IEEE 802.5 token ring standard, which is the most common type of token ring.
Tymnet 🌐 A public character-switching/packet-switching network operated by British Telecom.
UDP: User Datagram Protocol 💨 An Internet Standard transport layer protocol defined in STD 6, RFC 768. It's a connectionless protocol that adds a level of multiplexing to IP.
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 📬 This started out as a program run under the UNIX operating system that let one UNIX system send files to another UNIX system over dial-up phone lines. Today the term more commonly describes the large international network that uses the UUCP protocol to pass news and electronic mail.
VMS: Virtual Memory System 🖥️ A Digital Equipment Corporation operating system.
WAN: Wide Area Network 🗺️ A network, usually built with serial lines, that covers a large geographic area.
WHOIS 🔍 An Internet program that lets users query databases of people and other Internet entities, such as domains, networks, and hosts. For people, the information generally shows a person's company name, address, phone number and email address. Stalker-adjacent, so be nice 🙈
XNS: Xerox Network System 🖨️ A network developed by Xerox corporation. Implementations exist for both 4.3BSD derived systems and the Xerox Star computers.
X.25 📶 A data communications interface specification developed to describe how data passes into and out of public data communications networks. The CCITT and ISO approved protocol suite defines protocol layers 1 through 3.
14. Security Considerations 😱
Security issues are not discussed in this memo. Not one word! Hold that thought, because it's a huge deal and this memo just doesn't go there.
15. Authors' Addresses 💌
April N. Marine
Network Applications and Information Center
NASA Ames Research Center
M/S 204-14
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
Phone: (415) 604-0762
EMail: amarine@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
Joyce K. Reynolds
USC/Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 1001
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695
Phone: (310) 822-1511
EMail: jkrey@isi.edu
Gary Scott Malkin
Xylogics, Inc.
53 Third Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803
Phone: (617) 272-8140
EMail: gmalkin@Xylogics.COM📦 where this page comes from
- ietf: rfc1594 1994-03
- 💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms