Request for Comments, a series of notes and documents about the Internet, started in 1969 (when the Internet was the ARPANET). The RFC documents discuss many aspects of computing and computer communication focusing in networking protocols, procedures, programs, and concepts, but also including meeting notes, opinion, and sometimes humor. The specification documents of the Internet protocol suite, as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its steering group (the IESG), are published as RFCs. Many of the TCP/IP protocols and PPP protocols are defined by RFC's.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) US government and now an open and autonomous organization. The IAB provides the coordination for the R&D underlying the TCP/IP protocols and guides the evolution of the Internet. The TCP/IP protocols and many other protocols are well documented in the Request For Comments (RFC), which are drafted, discussed, circulated and approved by the IETF committees. All documents are open and free and can be found online in the IETF site listed in the reference.

Related Terms: IETF, IAB

Reference Links: www.ietf.org