RFC 2626 (rfc2626) - Page 2 of 385

The Internet and the Millennium Problem (Year 2000)

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