RFC 1118 (rfc1118) - Page 2 of 24
Hitchhikers guide to the Internet
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1118 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet September 1989 What is the Internet? In the beginning there was the ARPANET, a wide area experimental network connecting hosts and terminal servers together. Procedures were set up to regulate the allocation of addresses and to create voluntary standards for the network. As local area networks became more pervasive, many hosts became gateways to local networks. A network layer to allow the interoperation of these networks was developed and called Internet Protocol (IP). Over time other groups created long haul IP based networks (NASA, NSF, states...). These nets, too, interoperate because of IP. The collection of all of these interoperating networks is the Internet. A few groups provide much of the information services on the Internet. Information Sciences Institute (ISI) does much of the standardization and allocation work of the Internet acting as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). SRI International provides the principal information services for the Internet by operating the Network Information Center (NIC). In fact, after you are connected to the Internet most of the information in this document can be retrieved from the SRI-NIC. Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) provides information services for CSNET (the CIC) and NSFNET (the NNSC), and Merit provides information services for NSFNET (the NIS). Operating the Internet Each network, be it the ARPANET, NSFNET or a regional network, has its own operations center. The ARPANET is run by BBN, Inc. under contract from DCA (on behalf of DARPA). Their facility is called the Network Operations Center or NOC. Merit, Inc. operates NSFNET from yet another and completely seperate NOC. It goes on to the regionals having similar facilities to monitor and keep watch over the goings on of their portion of the Internet. In addition, they all should have some knowledge of what is happening to the Internet in total. If a problem comes up, it is suggested that a campus network liaison should contact the network operator to which he is directly connected. That is, if you are connected to a regional network (which is gatewayed to the NSFNET, which is connected to the ARPANET...) and have a problem, you should contact your regional network operations center. RFCs The internal workings of the Internet are defined by a set of documents called RFCs (Request for Comments). The general process for creating an RFC is for someone wanting something formalized to write a document describing the issue and mailing it to Jon Postel Krol
