A Request for Comments (RFC) document is one of a series of numbered Internet informational documents and standards widely followed by commercial software and freeware in the Internet and Unix communities. The RFC series of documents on networking began in 1969 as part of the original ARPAwide area networking (ARPANET) project. Today, it is the official publication channel for the Internet Engineering Steering Group, Internet Architecture Board, and the broader Internet community. RFCs cover many topics in addition to Internet Standards, such as introductions to new research ideas and status memos about the Internet. RFC are published by the RFC Editor who is under the general direction of the IAB.
Every RFC is available as ASCII text and may be available in other formats, depending on the author. The definitive version of any standards-track specifications is always the ASCII version.
The RFCs are produced in a process that is different than that used in formal standards organizations such as ANSI. They can be floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and reviewed by the Internet at large. Practically speaking, standards-track RFCs are usually produced by experts participating in working groups which first publish what the IETF calls Internet-Drafts; this facilitates initial rounds of review before documents become RFCs.
The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact standard writing done by individuals or small working groups has important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process typical of ANSI or ISO.
Emblematic of some of these advantages is the existence of a flourishing tradition of joke RFCs. Usually at least one a year is published, usually on April Fool's Day.
The RFCs are most remarkable for how well they work - they manage to have neither the ambiguities that are usually rife in informal specifications, nor the committee-perpetrated misfeatures that often haunt formal standards, and they define a network that has grown to truly worldwide proportions.
For more details about RFCs and the RFC process, see RFC 2026, "The Internet Standards Process, Revision 3".
RFC 2223, Instructions to RFC Authors. Jon Postel, Joyce K. Reynolds. October 1997. (Format: TXT=37948 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1543, RFC 1111, RFC 825) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 2223
RFC 1718, The Tao of IETF - A Guide for New Attendees of the Internet Engineering Task Force. The IETF Secretariat, G. Malkin. November 1994. (Format: TXT=50477 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1539) (Also FYI0017) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 1718
RFC 2026, The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3. Scott O. Bradner. October 1996. (Format: TXT=86731 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1602) (Also BCP0009) (Status: BEST CURRENT PRACTICE) Full text of RFC 2026
RFC 2419, The PPP DES Encryption Protocol, Version 2 (DESE-bis). K. Sklower, G. Meyer. September 1998. (Format: TXT=24414 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1969) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2419
RFC 3115, Mobile IP Vendor/Organization-Specific Extensions. G. Dommety, K. Leung. April 2001. (Format: TXT=16363 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 3025) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 3115
RFC 1809, Using the Flow Label Field in IPv6. C. Partridge. June 1995. (Format: TXT=13591 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 1809a The current standard for flow labels in IPv6 is described in RFC 3595.
RFC 2644, Changing the Default for Directed Broadcasts in Routers. D. Senie. August 1999. (Format: TXT=6820 bytes) (Updates RFC 1812) (Also BCP0034) (Status: BEST CURRENT PRACTICE) Full text of RFC 2644
RFC 985, Requirements for Internet gateways - draft. National Science Foundation, Network Technical Advisory Group. May-01-1986. (Format: TXT=59221 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC 1009) (Status: UNKNOWN) Full text of RFC 985
RFC 1009, Requirements for Internet gateways. R.T. Braden, Jon Postel. Jun-01-1987. (Format: TXT=128173 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 985) (Obsoleted by RFC 1812) (Status: HISTORIC) Full text of RFC 1009
RFC 1122, Requirements for Internet Hosts - Communication Layers. Robert Braden (editor). October 1989. (Format: TXT=295992 bytes) (Also STD0003) (Status: STANDARD) Full text of RFC 1122
RFC 1123, Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and Support. Robert Braden (editor). October 1989. (Format: TXT=245503 bytes) (Updates RFC 822) (Updated by RFC 2181) (Also STD0003) (Status: STANDARD) Full text of RFC 1123
RFC 1812, Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers. F. Baker. June 1995. (Format: TXT=415740 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1716, RFC 1009) (Updated by RFC 2644) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 1812
RFC 1006, ISO transport services on top of the TCP: Version 3. M.T. Rose, D.E. Cass. May-01-1987. (Format: TXT=31935 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 983) (Updated by RFC 2126) (Also STD0035) (Status: STANDARD) Full text of RFC 1006
RFC 2126, ISO Transport Service on top of TCP (ITOT). Y. Pouffary, A. Young. March 1997. (Format: TXT=51032 bytes) (Updates RFC 1006) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2126
RFC 2181, Clarifications to the DNS Specification. Robert Elz, Randy Bush. July 1997. (Format: TXT=36989 bytes) (Updates RFC 1034, RFC 1035, RFC 1123) (Updated by RFC 2535) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2181
RFC 2535, Domain Name System Security Extensions. Donald E. Eastlake 3rd. March 1999. (Format: TXT=110958 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 2065) (Updates RFC 2181, RFC 1035, RFC 1034) (Updated by RFC 2931, RFC 3007, RFC 3008) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2535
RFC 3008, Domain Name System Security (DNSSEC) Signing Authority. B. Wellington. November 2000. (Format: TXT=13484 bytes) (Updates RFC 2535) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 3008
RFC-2116, X.500 Implementations Catalog-96. C. Apple, K. Rossen. April 1997. (Format: TXT=243994 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1632) (Also FYI0011) (Status: NFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 2116
RFC 1156, Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based internets. K. McCloghrie, Marshall T. Rose. May-01-1990. (Format: TXT=138781 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1066) (Status: HISTORIC) Full text of RFC 1156
RFC 1792, TCP/IPX Connection Mib Specification. T. Sung. April 1995. (Format: TXT=16389 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL) Full text of RFC 1792
This is an important early RFC from the IETF that specified the protocol for transferring e-mail messages between computers on the Internet. Many additions have been made to it, but it remained a standard for many years until obsoleted by RFC 2821 (the number is not a coincidence: it was reserved for this use).
RFC 822, Standard for the format of ARPA Internet text messages. David H. Crocker. Aug-13-1982. (Format: TXT=109200 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 733) (Obsoleted by RFC 2822) (Updated by RFC 1123, RFC 1138, RFC 1148, RFC 1327, RFC 2156) (Status: STANDARD) Full text of RFC 822
This is an important early RFC from the IETF that specified the format of e-mail messages exchanged between computers on the Internet. Many additions have been made to it, but it remained a standard for many years until obsoleted by RFC 2822 (the number is not a coincidence: it was reserved for this use).
RFC 2821, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. J. Klensin, Editor. April 2001. (Obsoletes RFC 821, RFC 974, RFC 1869) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2821
This standard specifies the protocol for transferring e-mail messages between computers on the Internet.
RFC 2822, Internet Message Format. Peter W. Resnick, Editor. April 2001. (Format: TXT=110695 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 822) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2822
This standard specifies a syntax for text messages that are sent between computer users, within the framework of electronic mail messages. This standard is about text-only messages. The syntax for sending other types of messages, such as binary or structured data, is specified as an extension of this standard by the MIME document series: RFC 2045, RFC 2046, RFC 2047, RFC 2049.
RFC 3098, How to Advertise Responsibly Using E-Mail and Newsgroups or - how NOT to $$$$$ MAKE ENEMIES FAST! $$$$$. E. Gavin, D. Eastlake 3rd, S. Hambridge. April 2001. (Format: TXT=64687 bytes) (Also FYI0038) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 3098
