RFC 305

RFC 305: UNKNOWN HOST NUMBERS 🎀

Okay bestie, this one is from Ralph Alter at BBN, NIC #9078, and it's dated 23 February 1972 💖 It's part of the Network Working Group. The title block doesn't list a category, and it doesn't say it obsoletes or updates anything 🫶

There was a lil flurry of confusion, so BBN is announcing publicly that new IMPs are tested (almost always) on the ARPA Net here at BBN before they get delivered to the intended site 🔥 So sites shouldn't be shocked to get RFCs, or at least RSTs, from IMPs or Hosts they thought didn't exist, or didn't exist yet 💀

Sometimes IMPs of a certain configuration get tested in a mode where they announce an IMP number that's different from the one they'll have once they're installed 🧚 There are a bunch of reasons this can happen. The latest one: a TIP that's going in at ETAC with IMP number 20 (replacing the 316 IMP currently at ETAC, which is number 20) got tested here using McClellan's IMP number, 22 🦋 It couldn't be tested with its own number, since the 316 IMP at ETAC is using that one. The result was RSTs from the TIP (Host 3) at IMP 22, which is network address 150 (226 octal or 96 hex) 🌈

One site asked if their Host tables needed updating, and the answer is NO 🙅‍♀️ We fully expect IMPs tested this way to be ignored or CLS'd by some Hosts 😭 We suggest that Host tables (where they're thought to be necessary) only get modified in response to official notification from BBN, either through an RFC or an update to Appendix A of BBN Report #1822 💜

RA/jm ✨

[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ] [ into the online RFC archives by BBN Corp. under the ] [ direction of Alex McKenzie. 12/96 ]