RFC 1756 (rfc1756) - Page 1 of 11
Remote Write Protocol - Version 1
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group T. Rinne
Request for Comments: 1756 HUT
Category: Experimental January 1995
REMOTE WRITE PROTOCOL - VERSION 1.0
Status of this Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any
kind. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
1. Background
It is often convenient to use electronic communication somewhat
lighter than electronic mail. Sometimes even the use of the talk(1)
*) program seems like overkill. We like to offer to user something
like UNIX **) command write(1) ***) except that it can also pass
messages through the network instead of the single host.
There have been few programs offering this kind of service, but they
have either based on SUN-RPC protocol or used a strictly undocumented
protocol.
This document describes a simple Remote Write Protocol (RWP) that
should have been documented at least 10 years ago. But late is
better than never. Version number of the RWP protocol in this
document is 1.0.
2. Overview
RWP is a simple protocol that can be used to relay short messages
through the network to other users. RWP looks pretty much like
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) ****) though it is a bit more
complicated due to the interactive nature of the RWP session.
The idea behind the RWP session is that client program that is
relaying message to the host in which the target user is logged in
opens the tcp or udp connection to the server program running in the
target machine Then the client gives the sender's and recipient's
identification (usually login ids), actual message body and tells the
server to deliver a message to the user. On tcp-connection server
returns a status from each action taken. On udp-connection no
responses are sent. RWP sessions through udp are implemented to
support message broadcasting.
Rinne