rfc1325.txt

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Network Working Group                                          G. Malkin
Request for Comments: 1325                                      Xylogics
FYI: 4                                                         A. Marine
Obsoletes: RFC 1206                                                  SRI
                                                                May 1992


                      FYI on Questions and Answers
        Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

Abstract

   This FYI RFC is one of two FYI's called, "Questions and Answers"
   (Q/A), produced by the User Services Working Group of the Internet
   Engineering Task Force (IETF).  The goal is to document the most
   commonly asked questions and answers in the Internet.

New Questions and Answers

   In addition to updating information contained in the previous version
   of this FYI RFC, the following new questions have been added:

   Questions About the Internet:
     How do I get a list of all the hosts on the Internet?

   Questions About Internet Documentation:
     What is the RFC-INFO service?
     What is an FYI?
     What is an STD?
     What is the Internet Monthly Report?

   Questions About Internet Organizations:
     What is the Internet Society?

   Questions About Internet Services:
     What is "archie"?
     How do I Connect to archie?

   Mailing Lists and Sending Mail
     How Do I Send Mail to Other Networks?





User Services Working Group                                     [Page 1]

RFC 1325            FYI Q/A - for New Internet Users            May 1992


Table of Contents

   1. Introduction.................................................  2
   2. Acknowledgements.............................................  3
   3. Questions About the Internet.................................  3
   4. Questions About TCP/IP.......................................  5
   5. Questions About the Domain Name System.......................  6
   6. Questions About Internet Documentation.......................  6
   7. Questions about Internet Organizations and Contacts.......... 14
   8. Questions About Services..................................... 19
   9. Mailing Lists and Sending Mail............................... 23
   10. Miscellaneous "Internet lore" questions..................... 27
   11. Suggested Reading........................................... 28
   12. References.................................................. 29
   13. Condensed Glossary.......................................... 30
   14. Security Considerations..................................... 42
   15. Authors' Addresses.......................................... 42

1. Introduction

   New users joining the Internet community have the same questions as
   did everyone else who has ever joined.  Our quest is to provide the
   Internet community with up to date, basic Internet knowledge and
   experience, while moving the redundancies away from the electronic
   mailing lists so that the lists' subscribers do not have to read the
   same queries and answers over and over again.

   Future updates of this memo will be produced as User Services members
   become aware of additional questions that should be included, and of
   deficiencies or inaccuracies that should be amended in this document.
   Although the RFC number of this document will change with each
   update, it will always have the designation of FYI 4.  An additional
   FYI Q/A, FYI 7, is published that deals with intermediate and
   advanced Q/A topics [11].

   The Q/A mailing lists are maintained by Gary Malkin at Xylogics.COM.
   They are used by a subgroup of the User Services Working Group to
   discuss the Q/A FYIs.  They include:

   [e-mail]      This is a discussion mailing list.  Its
                           primary use is for pre-release review of
                           the Q/A FYIs.  It is not necessary to be
                           on this list to get the FYI documents.

   [e-mail]  This is how you join and leave the quail
                               mailing list.

   [e-mail]  This is a write-only list which serves as a



User Services Working Group                                     [Page 2]

RFC 1325            FYI Q/A - for New Internet Users            May 1992


                           repository for candidate questions and
                           answers.  It is not necessary to be on the
                           quail mailing list to forward to the
                           quail-box.  Please note that this is not a
                           place to ask questions to which you don't
                           know the answers.

2. Acknowledgements

   The following people deserve thanks for their help and contributions
   to this FYI Q/A: Corinne Carroll (BBN), Vint Cerf (CNRI), Peter
   Deutsch (McGill), John Klensin (MIT), Doug Mildram (Xylogics), Tracy
   LaQuey Parker (UTexas), Craig Partridge (BBN), Jon Postel (ISI), Matt
   Power (MIT), Joyce K.  Reynolds (ISI), Karen Roubicek (Faxon),
   Patricia Smith (Merit), Gene Spafford (Purdue), and Carol Ward (SRI).

3. Questions About the Internet

   What is the Internet?

      The Internet is a large collection of networks (all of which run
      the TCP/IP protocols) that are tied together so that users of any
      of the networks can use the network services provided by TCP/IP to
      reach users on any of the other networks.  The Internet started
      with the ARPANET, but now includes such networks as NSFNET,
      NYSERnet, and thousands of others.  There are other major wide
      area networks, such as BITNET and DECnet networks, that are not
      based on the TCP/IP protocols and are thus not part of the
      Internet.  However, it is possible to communicate between them and
      the Internet via electronic mail because of mail gateways that act
      as "translators" between the different network protocols involved.

      Note: You will often see "internet" with a small "i".  This could
      refer to any network built based on TCP/IP, or might refer to
      networks using other protocol families that are composites built
      of smaller networks.

   I just got on the Internet.  What can I do now?

      You now have access to all the resources you are authorized to use
      on your own Internet host, on any other Internet host on which you
      have an account, and on any other Internet host that offers
      publicly accessible information.  The Internet gives you the
      ability to move information between these hosts via file
      transfers.  Once you are logged into one host, you can use the
      Internet to open a connection to another, login, and use its
      services interactively (this is known as remote login or
      "TELNETing".  In addition, you can send electronic mail to users



User Services Working Group                                     [Page 3]

RFC 1325            FYI Q/A - for New Internet Users            May 1992


      at any Internet site and to users on many non-Internet sites that
      are accessible via electronic mail.

      There are various other services you can use.  For example, some
      hosts provide access to specialized databases or to archives of
      information.  The Internet Resource Guide provides information
      regarding some of these sites.  The Internet Resource Guide lists
      facilities on the Internet that are available to users.  Such
      facilities include supercomputer centers, library catalogs and
      specialized data collections.  The guide is published by the NSF
      Network Service Center (NNSC) and is continuously being updated.
      The Resource Guide is distributed free via e-mail (send a note to
      [e-mail] to join the e-mail
      distribution) and via anonymous FTP (in nnsc.nsf.net:resource-
      guide/*).  Hardcopy is available at a nominal fee (to cover
      reproduction costs) from the NNSC.  Call the NNSC at 617-873-3400
      for more information.

   How do I find out if a site has a computer on the Internet?

      Three good sources to consult are "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic
      Mail Addressing and Networks" by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams;
      "The User's Directory of Computer Networks", by Tracy LaQuey; and
      "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems
      Worldwide", by John Quarterman.

      In addition, it is possible to find some information about
      Internet sites in the WHOIS database maintained at the DDN NIC at
      Network Solutions, Inc..  The DDN NIC (Defense Data Network,
      Network Information Center) provides an information retrieval
      interface to the database that is also called WHOIS.  To use this
      interface, TELNET to NIC.DDN.MIL and type "whois" (carriage
      return).  No login is necessary.  Type "help" at the whois prompt
      for more information on using the facility.  WHOIS will show many
      sites, but may not show every site registered with the DDN NIC
      (simply for reasons having to do with how the program is set up to
      search the database).

   How do I get a list of all the hosts on the Internet?

      You really don't want that.  The list includes almost 727,000
      hosts.  Almost all of them require that you have access permission
      to actually use them.  However, there are many machines which
      serve special functions and are available to the public.  There is
      not yet a definitive list, but below are some available machines.
      They are available via telnet.





User Services Working Group                                     [Page 4]

RFC 1325            FYI Q/A - for New Internet Users            May 1992


         A geographic information server which provides latitude,
         longitude and other statistics about a city.

            telnet martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000

         The Library of Congress maintains an online catalog.

            telnet dra.com

         NASA SpaceLink offers latest NASA news including shuttle
         launches and satellite updates.

            telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov

4. Questions About TCP/IP

   What is TCP/IP?

      TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) [4,5,6]
      is the common name for a family of over 100 data-communications
      protocols used to organize computers and data-communications
      equipment into computer networks.  TCP/IP was developed to
      interconnect hosts on ARPANET, PRNET (packet radio), and SATNET
      (packet satellite).  All three of these networks have since been
      retired; but TCP/IP lives on.  It is currently used on a large
      international network of networks called the Internet, whose
      members include universities, other research institutions,
      government facilities, and many corporations.  TCP/IP is also
      sometimes used for other networks, particularly local area
      networks that tie together numerous different kinds of computers
      or tie together engineering workstations.

   What are the other well-known standard protocols
   in the TCP/IP family?

      Other than TCP and IP, the three main protocols in the TCP/IP
      suite are the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) [8], the File
      Transfer Protocol (FTP) [3], and the TELNET Protocol [9].  There
      are many other protocols in use on the Internet.  The Internet
      Activities Board (IAB) regularly publishes an RFC [2] that
      describes the state of standardization of the various Internet
      protocols.  This document is the best guide to the current status
      of Internet protocols and their recommended usage.








User Services Working Group                                     [Page 5]

RFC 1325            FYI Q/A - for New Internet Users            May 1992


5.  Questions About the Domain Name System

   What is the Domain Name System?

      The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical, distributed method
      of organizing the name space of the Internet.  The DNS
      administratively groups hosts into a hierarchy of authority that
      allows addressing and other information to be widely distributed
      and maintained.  A big advantage to the DNS is that using it
      eliminates dependence on a centrally-maintained file that maps
      host names to addresses.

   What is a Fully Qualified Domain Name?

      A Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is a domain name that
      includes all higher level domains relevant to the entity named.
      If you think of the DNS as a tree-structure with each node having
      its own label, a Fully Qualified Domain Name for a specific node
      would be its label followed by the labels of all the other nodes
      between it and the root of the tree.  For example, for a host, a
      FQDN would include the string that identifies the particular host,
      plus all domains of which the host is a part up to and including