RFC 1118 (rfc1118) - Page 3 of 24
Hitchhikers guide to the Internet
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1118 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet September 1989 (Postel@ISI.EDU). He acts as a referee for the proposal. It is then commented upon by all those wishing to take part in the discussion (electronically of course). It may go through multiple revisions. Should it be generally accepted as a good idea, it will be assigned a number and filed with the RFCs. There are two independent categorizations of protocols. The first is the state of standardization which is one of "standard", "draft standard", "proposed", "experimental", or "historic". The second is the status of this protocol which is one of "required", "recommended", "elective", or "not recommended". One could expect a particular protocol to move along the scale of status from elective to required at the same time as it moves along the scale of standardization from proposed to standard. A Required Standard protocol (e.g., RFC-791, The Internet Protocol) must be implemented on any host connected to the Internet. Recommended Standard protocols are generally implemented by network hosts. Lack of them does not preclude access to the Internet, but may impact its usability. RFC-793 (Transmission Control Protocol) is a Recommended Standard protocol. Elective Proposed protocols were discussed and agreed to, but their application has never come into wide use. This may be due to the lack of wide need for the specific application (RFC-937, The Post Office Protocol) or that, although technically superior, ran against other pervasive approaches. It is suggested that should the facility be required by a particular site, an implementation be done in accordance with the RFC. This insures that, should the idea be one whose time has come, the implementation will be in accordance with some standard and will be generally usable. Informational RFCs contain factual information about the Internet and its operation (RFC-1010, Assigned Numbers). Finally, as the Internet and technology have grown, some RFCs have become unnecessary. These obsolete RFCs cannot be ignored, however. Frequently when a change is made to some RFC that causes a new one to be issued obsoleting others, the new RFC may only contains explanations and motivations for the change. Understanding the model on which the whole facility is based may involve reading the original and subsequent RFCs on the topic. (Appendix B contains a list of what are considered to be the major RFCs necessary for understanding the Internet). Only a few RFCs actually specify standards, most RFCs are for information or discussion purposes. To find out what the current standards are see the RFC titled "IAB Official Protocol Standards" (most recently published as RFC-1100). Krol
