RFC 2626 (rfc2626) - Page 2 of 385
The Internet and the Millennium Problem (Year 2000)
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 2626 The Internet and the Millennium Problem (Year 2000) June 1999 With the increasing popularity of the Internet, more and more organizations use the Internet as a serious business tool. This means that most organizations will want to analyze the millennium problems due to the use of Internet protocols and popular Internet software. In the trade press the first articles suggest that the Internet will collapse at midnight the 31st of December 1999. To counter these suggestions, and to avoid having countless companies redo the same investigation, this effort was undertaken by the IETF. The Year 2000 WG has made an inventory of all-important Internet protocols that have been documented in the Request for Comments (RFC) series. Only protocols directly related to the Internet will be considered. This document is divided into a number of sections. Section 1 is the Introduction which you are now reading. Section 2 is a disclaimer about the completeness of this effort. Section 3 describes areas in which millenium problems have been found, while Section 4 describes a few other "period" problems. Section 5 describes potential fixes to problems that have been identified. Section 6 describes the methodology used in the investigation. Sections 7 through 22 are devoted to the 15 different groupings of protocols and RFCs. Section 23 discusses security considerations, Section 24 is devoted to references, and Section 25 is the author contact information. Appendix A is the list of RFCs examined broken down by category. Appendix B is a PERL program used to make a first cut identification of problems, and Appendix C is the output of that PERL program. The editor of this document would like to acknowledge the critical contributions of the follow for direct performance of research and the provision of text: Alex Latzko, Robert Elz, Erik Huizer, Gillian Greenwood, Barbara Jennings, R.E. (Robert) Moore, David Mills, Lynn Kubinec, Michael Patton, Chris Newman, Erik-Jan Bos, Paul Hoffman, and Rick H. Wesson. The pace with which this group has operated has only been achievable by the intimate familiarity of the contributors with the protocols and ready access to the collective knowledge of the IETF. 2. Disclaimer This RFC is not complete. It is an effort to analyze the Y2K impact on hundreds of protocols but is likely to have missed some protocols and misunderstood others. Organizations should not attempt to claim any legitimacy or approval for any particular protocol based on this document. The efforts have concentrated on the identification of potential problems, rather than solutions to any of the problems that have been identified. Any proposed solutions are only that: proposed. A formal engineering review should take place before any solution is Nesser Informational
