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Once upon a time, there was no such thing as the Internet. Then the first Internet
was created (it was called ARPANET), but it was just for a
few departments at a couple of universities. If you are interested in this part
you can read a History of
ARPANET
As they thought about the possibility that perhaps even as many as a hundred computers might eventually be on this new Inter-network, they set up a way that standards could be created. Instead of these stadards being proprietary, owned by a particular company (as most were), these standards would be "open source" (to use a modern term), with no royalty charged to those who use them. The existence of standards would allow any company or individual to create software and hardware that could communicate with other computers on the Internet, no matter who created those other computers and software programs. |
The standards are called RFCs, which stands for Request For Comment. There
are about five thousand of them that have been created. Some of them have
become standards, some are proposed as standards, some are drafts of a future standard,
some are intended to update or clarify a standard, and some are created for other
reasons. As you might imagine, wading through five thousand RFCs can be a daunting process. Even if you find an RFC that describes the standard you are interested in, this standard may be updated or obsoleted by another RFC. RFCTree.com was created to make dealing with RFCs easier. We hope that the site will help make the standards in the RFCs more accessible to applications programmers, amateur and professional, so that users of the Internet can ultimately have a more seamless experience. For more info check out the RFCTree.com FAQ. |
© 2006 Vance Gloster