RFC 1118 (rfc1118) - Page 3 of 24

Hitchhikers guide to the Internet

RFC 1118         The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet    September 1989


   ().  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