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