rfc1118.txt

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Network Working Group                                            E. Krol
Request for Comments: 1118                 University of Illinois Urbana
                                                          September 1989


                 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet

Status of this Memo

   This RFC is being distributed to members of the Internet community in
   order to make available some "hints" which will allow new network
   participants to understand how the direction of the Internet is set,
   how to acquire online information and how to be a good Internet
   neighbor.  While the information discussed may not be relevant to the
   research problems of the Internet, it may be interesting to a number
   of researchers and implementors.  No standards are defined or
   specified in this memo.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

NOTICE:

   The hitchhikers guide to the Internet is a very unevenly edited memo
   and contains many passages which simply seemed to its editors like a
   good idea at the time.  It is an indispensable companion to all those
   who are keen to make sense of life in an infinitely complex and
   confusing Internet, for although it cannot hope to be useful or
   informative on all matters, it does make the reassuring claim that
   where it is inaccurate, it is at least definitively inaccurate.  In
   cases of major discrepancy it is always reality that's got it wrong.
   And remember, DON'T PANIC.  (Apologies to Douglas Adams.)

Purpose and Audience

   This document assumes that one is familiar with the workings of a
   non-connected simple IP network (e.g., a few 4.3 BSD systems on an
   Ethernet not connected to anywhere else).  Appendix A contains
   remedial information to get one to this point.  Its purpose is to get
   that person, familiar with a simple net, versed in the "oral
   tradition" of the Internet to the point that that net can be
   connected to the Internet with little danger to either.  It is not a
   tutorial, it consists of pointers to other places, literature, and
   hints which are not normally documented.  Since the Internet is a
   dynamic environment, changes to this document will be made regularly.
   The author welcomes comments and suggestions.  This is especially
   true of terms for the glossary (definitions are not necessary).







Krol                                                            [Page 1]

RFC 1118         The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet    September 1989


What is the Internet?

   In the beginning there was the ARPANET, a wide area experimental
   network connecting hosts and terminal servers together.  Procedures
   were set up to regulate the allocation of addresses and to create
   voluntary standards for the network.  As local area networks became
   more pervasive, many hosts became gateways to local networks.  A
   network layer to allow the interoperation of these networks was
   developed and called Internet Protocol (IP).  Over time other groups
   created long haul IP based networks (NASA, NSF, states...).  These
   nets, too, interoperate because of IP.  The collection of all of
   these interoperating networks is the Internet.

   A few groups provide much of the information services on the
   Internet.  Information Sciences Institute (ISI) does much of the
   standardization and allocation work of the Internet acting as the
   Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).  SRI International
   provides the principal information services for the Internet by
   operating the Network Information Center (NIC).  In fact, after you
   are connected to the Internet most of the information in this
   document can be retrieved from the SRI-NIC.  Bolt Beranek and Newman
   (BBN) provides information services for CSNET (the CIC) and NSFNET
   (the NNSC), and Merit provides information services for NSFNET (the
   NIS).

Operating the Internet

   Each network, be it the ARPANET, NSFNET or a regional network, has
   its own operations center.  The ARPANET is run by BBN, Inc. under
   contract from DCA (on behalf of DARPA).  Their facility is called the
   Network Operations Center or NOC.  Merit, Inc. operates NSFNET from
   yet another and completely seperate NOC.  It goes on to the regionals
   having similar facilities to monitor and keep watch over the goings
   on of their portion of the Internet.  In addition, they all should
   have some knowledge of what is happening to the Internet in total.
   If a problem comes up, it is suggested that a campus network liaison
   should contact the network operator to which he is directly
   connected.  That is, if you are connected to a regional network
   (which is gatewayed to the NSFNET, which is connected to the
   ARPANET...) and have a problem, you should contact your regional
   network operations center.

RFCs

   The internal workings of the Internet are defined by a set of
   documents called RFCs (Request for Comments).  The general process
   for creating an RFC is for someone wanting something formalized to
   write a document describing the issue and mailing it to Jon Postel



Krol                                                            [Page 2]

RFC 1118         The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet    September 1989


   ([e-mail]).  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                                                            [Page 3]

RFC 1118         The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet    September 1989


The Network Information Center (NIC)

   The NIC is a facility available to all Internet users which provides
   information to the community.  There are three means of NIC contact:
   network, telephone, and mail.  The network accesses are the most
   prevalent.  Interactive access is frequently used to do queries of
   NIC service overviews, look up user and host names, and scan lists of
   NIC documents.  It is available by using

      %telnet nic.ddn.mil

   on a BSD system, and following the directions provided by a user
   friendly prompter.  From poking around in the databases provided, one
   might decide that a document named NETINFO:NUG.DOC (The Users Guide
   to the ARPANET) would be worth having.  It could be retrieved via an
   anonymous FTP.  An anonymous FTP would proceed something like the
   following.  (The dialogue may vary slightly depending on the
   implementation of FTP you are using).

     %ftp nic.ddn.mil
     Connected to nic.ddn.mil
     220 NIC.DDN.MIL FTP Server 5Z(47)-6 at Wed 17-Jun-87 12:00 PDT
     Name (nic.ddn.mil:myname): anonymous
     331 ANONYMOUS user ok, send real ident as password.
     Password: myname
     230 User ANONYMOUS logged in at Wed 17-Jun-87 12:01 PDT, job 15.
     ftp> get netinfo:nug.doc
     200 Port 18.144 at host 128.174.5.50 accepted.
     150 ASCII retrieve of <NETINFO>NUG.DOC.11 started.
     226 Transfer Completed 157675 (8) bytes transferred
     local: netinfo:nug.doc  remote:netinfo:nug.doc
     157675 bytes in 4.5e+02 seconds (0.34 Kbytes/s)
     ftp> quit
     221 QUIT command received. Goodbye.

   (Another good initial document to fetch is NETINFO:WHAT-THE-NIC-
   DOES.TXT).

   Questions of the NIC or problems with services can be asked of or
   reported to using electronic mail.  The following addresses can be
   used:

     [e-mail]         General user assistance, document requests
     [e-mail]   User registration and WHOIS updates
     [e-mail]  Hostname and domain changes and updates
     [e-mail]      SRI-NIC computer operations
     [e-mail] Comments on NIC publications and services




Krol                                                            [Page 4]

RFC 1118         The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet    September 1989


   For people without network access, or if the number of documents is
   large, many of the NIC documents are available in printed form for a
   small charge.  One frequently ordered document for starting sites is
   a compendium of major RFCs.  Telephone access is used primarily for
   questions or problems with network access.  (See appendix B for
   mail/telephone contact numbers).

The NSFNET Network Service Center

   The NSFNET Network Service Center (NNSC), located at BBN Systems and
   Technologies Corp., is a project of the University Corporation for
   Atmospheric Research under agreement with the National Science
   Foundation.  The NNSC provides support to end-users of NSFNET should
   they have questions or encounter problems traversing the network.

   The NNSC, which has information and documents online and in printed
   form, distributes news through network mailing lists, bulletins, and
   online reports.  NNSC publications include a hardcopy newsletter, the
   NSF Network News, which contains articles of interest to network
   users and the Internet Resource Guide, which lists facilities (such
   as supercomputer centers and on-line library catalogues) accessible
   from the Internet.  The Resource Guide can be obtained via anonymous
   ftp to nnsc.nsf.net in the directory resource-guide, or by joining
   the resource guide mailing list (send a subscription request to
   [e-mail].)

Mail Reflectors

   The way most people keep up to date on network news is through
   subscription to a number of mail reflectors (also known as mail
   exploders).  Mail reflectors are special electronic mailboxes which,
   when they receive a message, resend it to a list of other mailboxes.
   This in effect creates a discussion group on a particular topic.
   Each subscriber sees all the mail forwarded by the reflector, and if
   one wants to put his "two cents" in sends a message with the comments
   to the reflector.

   The general format to subscribe to a mail list is to find the address
   reflector and append the string -REQUEST to the mailbox name (not the
   host name).  For example, if you wanted to take part in the mailing