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Request for comment. One of a series, begun in 1969, of numbered Internet informational documents and standards widely followed by commercial software and freeware in the Internet and Unix communities. Few RFCs are standards but all Internet standards are recorded in RFCs. Perhaps the single most influential RFC has been RFC 822, the Internet electronic mail (email) format standard.

The RFCs issued by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its predecessors are the most well-known series known as 'RFC', and is almost always what is meant by RFC without further qualification; however, other organizations have in the past also issued series called 'RFCs'.

The RFCs are unusual in that they are floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and reviewed by the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated through an institution such as ANSI. For this reason, they remain known as RFCs even once adopted as standards.

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.

RFC 1, entitled "Host Software", was issued on April 7 1969 by Steve Crocker.

For more details about RFCs and the RFC process, see RFC 2026, "The Internet Standards Process, Revision 3"

A complete RFC index in text format is available from the IETF website, but because of its length, it is impractical to include it in the Wikipedia. The text of any particular RFC can be found by entering its number at http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html.

Here is the list of the most important RFCs:

RFC 0822 (Format of e-mail) RFC 0823 (The Internet gateway) RFC 0824 (CRONUS Virtual Local Network) RFC 0825 (RFC on RFCs)

RFC 0983 (ISO transport over TCP), RFC 0985 (Gateway Requirements), RFC 0987 (Mapping X.400 to RFC822)

RFC 1006 (ISO over TCP ver. 3), RFC 1009 (Gateway Requirements), RFC 1066 (Mib for TCP/IP)

RFC 1123 (Host Requirements), RFC 1149 (IP via Carrier Pigeon), RFC 1156 (Mib for TCP/IP)

RFC 1495 (Mapping X.400 to RFC822)

RFC 1521 (MIME)

RFC 1632 (Catalog of X.500 Implementations)

RFC 1718 (TAO of IETF)

RFC 1776 (The Address is the Message), RFC 1789 (Telephone over Internet), RFC 1792 (TCP/IPX Mib)

RFC 1809 (Flow Label in IPv6), RFC 1812 (IPv4 Routers), RFC 1876 (Location Information in DNS), RFC 1889 (Real-Time transport)

RFC 1918 ("Network 10"), RFC 1969 (PPP DES Encryption)

RFC 2026 (Internet Standards Rev. 3) RFC 2045 (MIME 1) RFC 2046 (MIME 2), RFC 2047 (MIME 3), RFC 2048 (MIME 4), RFC 2049 (MIME 5), RFC 2083 (PNG Format)

RFC 2116 (X.500 Implementations Catalog), RFC 2126 (ISO over TCP), RFC 2156 (Mapping X.400 to RFC822), RFC 2181 (Clarifications to DNS), RFC 2183 (Content-Disposition Header), RFC 2184 (Character Sets)

RFC 2223 (Instructions to RFC Authors), RFC 2231 (Character Sets)

RFC 2326 (Real Time Streaming), RFC 2327 (Session Description)

RFC 2401 (Security Architecture) RFC 2419 (PPP DES Encryption), RFC 2420 (PPP Triple-DES Encryption), RFC 2421 (Voice Mail)

RFC 2525 (TCP Problems) RFC 2535 (DNS Security) RFC 2543 (Session Initiation) RFC 2549 (IP via Carrier Pigeon with QOS)

RFC 2644 (Changing Router Default Directed Broadcasts), RFC 2645 (On Demand Mail), RFC 2646 (Plain Text)

RFC 2747 (RSVP Crypto), RFC 2748 (COPS Protocol), RFC 2749 (COPS usage for RSVP)

RFC 2822 (e-mail format)

RFC 3008 (DNS Security) RFC 3023 (XML Media Types), RFC 3066 (Language Tags), RFC 3094 (Tekelec's Transport), RFC 3097 (RSVP Updated Message), RFC 3098 (Advertise Responsibly Using E-Mail)

RFC 3106 (ECML for E-Commerce), RFC 3114 (Company Security Classification with S/MIME), RFC 3115 (Mobile IP Extensions)

RFC 3261 (Session Initiation Protocol )

See also: FYI, Internet standard, BCP

partially based on FOLDOC

Generic RFCs

  • 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 1969, The PPP DES Encryption Protocol (DESE). K. Sklower, G. Meyer. June 1996. (Format: TXT=20383 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC 2419) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 1969
  • 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

Internetwork-Level RFCs

  • RFC 791, Internet Protocol. J. Postel. Sep-01-1981. (Format: TXT=97779 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC0760) (Also STD0005) (Status: STANDARD) Full text of RFC 0791.
  • 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
This is about using the flow label field in IPv6. This document is merely a suggestion and does not contain any standards in it. The current standard for flow labels in IPv6 is described in RFC 3595 here.
  • 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

Host/Router Requirements RFCs

  • 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

ISO Interoperation RFCs

  • 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 0983) (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

Domain Name System RFCs

  • RFC 1876, A Means for Expressing Location Information in the Domain Name System. C. Davis, Paul Vixie, T. Goodwin, I. Dickinson. January 1996. (Format: TXT=29631 bytes) (Updates RFC 1034, RFC 1035) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL) Full text of RFC 1876
This covers the operation of secondary domain name servers.
  • 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

X.500 RFCs

  • RFC 1632, A Revised Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations. A. Getchell, S. Sataluri, Editors. May 1994. (Format: TXT=124111 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1292) (Obsoleted by RFC 2116) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 1632
See also X.500
  • 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

Network Management RFCs

  • RFC 1792, TCP/IPX Connection Mib Specification. T. Sung. April 1995. (Format: TXT=16389 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL) Full text of RFC 1792

E-Mail RFCs

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).
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 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

X.400 E-Mail RFCs

MIME RFCs

RFC 2047 specifies a standard way of encoding non US-ASCII characters into a string that identifies both the character set to use and the actual characters. The result of the encoding will be US-ASCII, and can be transmitted in Internet mail and decoded appropriately on the receiving end. This encoding is necessary in the first place because many characters in non-English languages can not be represented in 7-bit ASCII.
There are some mail clients that are not RFC 2047 Compliant, if you are using one of this clients you are strongly encuraged to change your mail client or to update it to a compliant version:
Eudora 4: Double quote characters are encoded with a Windows codpage and are eight-bit characters. Eudora's MIME headers indicate the MIME type but not 8-bit encoding. Suggest enabling "quoted printable" encoding.
  • RFC 2049, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples. N. Freed, N. Borenstein. November 1996. (Format: TXT=51207 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1521, RFC 1522, RFC 1590) (Status: DRAFT STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2049
  • RFC 2183, Communicating Presentation Information in Internet Messages: The Content-Disposition Header Field. R. Troost, S. Dorner, K. Moore. August 1997. (Format: TXT=23150 bytes) (Updates RFC 1806) (Updated by RFC 2184, RFC 2231) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2183

April 1st RFCs


  • RFC 2549, IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service, D. Waitzman. Apr-01-1999. (Format: TXT=9519 bytes) (Updates RFC1149) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 2549
This is a humorous RFC by the IETF. It was written by D. Waitzman and released on April Fool's Day 1999; it is an April 1st RFC. It updates Waitzman's earlier RFC 1149 about the transmission of IP traffic via carrier pigeons.

Random Support RFCs

  • RFC 3097, RSVP Cryptographic Authentication -- Updated Message Type Value. R. Braden, L. Zhang. April 2001. (Format: TXT=6320 bytes) (Updates RFC 2747) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 3097
  • RFC 2747, RSVP Cryptographic Authentication. F. Baker, B. Lindell, M. Talwar. January 2000. (Format: TXT=49477 bytes) (Updated by RFC 3097) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD) Full text of RFC 2747

Random Application RFCs

  • RFC 1789, INETPhone: Telephone Services and Servers on Internet. C. Yang. April 1995. (Format: TXT=14186 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 1789
  • RFC 3066, Tags for the Identification of Languages. H. Alvestrand. January 2001. (Format: TXT=26522 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1766) (Also BCP0047) (Status: BEST CURRENT PRACTICE) Full text of RFC 3066
This provides a way to register extensions of codes for language names in ISO 639. The current reviewer of new tags and maintainer of the registry is Michael Everson. An alternative for language codes is the Ethnologue.
See also Registry
  • RFC 3106, ECML v1.1: Field Specifications for E-Commerce. D. Eastlake, T. Goldstein. April 2001. (Format: TXT=40715 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 2706) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 3106

Random RFCs

  • RFC 0823 DARPA Internet gateway. R.M. Hinden, A. Sheltzer. Sep-01-1982. (Format: TXT=62620 bytes) (Updates IEN 109, IEN 30) (Status: HISTORIC) Full text of RFC 0823
This is a memo and status report of the DARPA Internet Gateway. It deals with two areas: gateway procedures and message formats. Topics include information on the forwarding of internet datagrams, various protocols supported by the gateway, and specific gateway software. Unlike many other RFCs, it does not list any implementation specifics.
  • RFC 0824 CRONUS Virtual Local Network. W.I. MacGregor, D.C. Tappan. Aug-25-1982. (Format: TXT=58732 bytes) (Status: UNKNOWN) Full text of RFC 0824
  • RFC 3094, Tekelec's Transport Adapter Layer Interface. D. Sprague, R. Benedyk, D. Brendes, J. Keller. April 2001. (Format: TXT=265099 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL) Full text of RFC 3094
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