index and a complete set of BCPs.
9.5. RARE Technical Reports
RARE, the Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne (Association
of European Research Networks), has a charter to promote and
participate in the creation of a high-quality European computer
communications infrastructure for the support of research endeavors.
RARE member networks use Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols
and TCP/IP. To promote a closer relationship between RARE and the
IETF, RARE Technical Reports (RTRs) have also been published as RFCs
since the summer of 1993.
RTR documents may be obtained as RFCs using the methods described in
Section 9.1. RTRs may also be obtained via the RFC-INFO server using
the RETRIEVE: RTR and Doc-ID: RTRxxxx commands. Also, check out the
InterNIC's Web site at http://www.internic.net/rtr/ for the RTR index
and a complete set of RTRs. Finally, RTRs may be obtained via
anonymous FTP from ftp://ftp.rare.nl/rare/publications/rtr/.
10. Perusing the Internet
This guide is intended to provide the reader with a rudimentary
ability to use the utilities that are provided by TCP/IP and the
Internet. By now, it is clear that the user's knowledge, ability, and
willingness to experiment are about the only limits to what can be
accomplished.
There are several books that will help you get started finding sites
on the Internet, including The INTERNET Yellow Pages [9]. But much
more timely and up-to-date information can be found on the Internet
itself, using such search tools as Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com),
Excite (http://www.excite.com), Lycos (http://www.lycos.com),
WebCrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com), and AltaAvista
(http://altavista.digital.com).
There are several other sources that cite locations from which to
access specific information about a wide range of subjects using such
tools as FTP, Telnet, Gopher, and WWW. One of the best periodic
lists, and archives, is through the Scout Report, a weekly
publication by the InterNIC's Net Scout Services Project at the
University of Wisconsin's Computer Science Department. To receive the
Scout Report by e-mail each week, join the mailing list by sending
email to listserv@lists.internic.net; place the line subscribe
scout-report your_full_name in the body of the message to receive the
text version or use subscribe scout-report-html your_full_name to
receive the report in HTML. The Scout Report is also available on the
Web at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report and
http://rs.internic.net/scout/report, or via anonymous FTP at
ftp://rs.internic.net/scout/.
Another list is Yanoff's Internet Services List, which may be found
at http://www.spectracom.com/islist/ or
ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/inet.services.txt. Gary Kessler, one of the
co-author's of this document, maintains his own eclectic
Miscellaneous Sites List at
http://www.together.net/~kessler/gck_site.html.
If you are looking for Internet-specific information, one good
starting point is
http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/. The InterNIC
is another valuable resource, with their Scout Report and Scout
Toolkit (http://rs.internic.net/scout/toolkit).
There is also a fair amount of rudimentary tutorial information
available on the Internet. The InterNIC cosponsors "The 15 Minute
Series" (http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/15min/), a collection of
free, modular, and extensible training materials on specific Internet
topics. ROADMAP96 (http://www.ua.edu/~crispen/roadmap.html) is a
free, 27-lesson Internet training workshop over e-mail.
More books and specialized articles came out about the Internet in
1993 and 1994 than in all previous years (squared!), and that trend
has seemed to continue into 1995, 1996, and beyond. Three books are
worth notable mention because they do not directly relate to finding
your way around, or finding things on, the Internet. Hafner and Lyon
[8] have written Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the
Internet, a history of the development of the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA), packet switching, and the ARPANET, focusing
primarily on the 1960s and 1970s. While culminating with the
APRANET's 25th Anniversary in 1994, its main thrusts are on the
groups building the ARPANET backbone (largely BBN) and the host-to-
host application and communication protocols (largely the Network
Working Group). Salus' book, Casting The Net: From ARPANET to
INTERNET and beyond... [28], goes into the development of the network
from the perspective of the people, protocols, applications, and
networks. Including a set of "diversions," his book is a bit more
whimsical than Hafner & Lyon's. Finally, Carl Malamud has written a
delightful book called Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue
[17], chronicling not the history of the Internet as much as a subset
of the people currently active in building and defining it. This
book will not teach you how to perform an anonymous FTP file transfer
nor how to use Gopher, but provides insights about our network (and
Carl's gastro-pathology) that no mere statistics can convey.
11. Acronyms and Abbreviations
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
BCP Best Current Practices
BITNET Because It's Time Network
DDN Defense Data Network
DNS Domain Name System
EARN European Academic Research Network
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions list
FTP File Transfer Protocol
FYI For Your Information series of RFCs
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP Hypertext Transport Protocol
ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol
IP Internet Protocol
ISO International Organization for Standardization
NetBIOS Network Basic Input/Output System
NIC Network Information Center
NICNAME Network Information Center name service
NSF National Science Foundation
NSFNET National Science Foundation Network
RFCRequest For Comments
RARE Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne
RTR RARE Technical Reports
STD Internet Standards series of RFCs
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
TTL Time-To-Live
UDP User Datagram Protocol
URL Uniform Resource Locator
WAIS Wide Area Information Server
WWW World Wide Web
12. Security Considerations
Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
13. Acknowledgments
Our thanks are given to all sites that we accessed or otherwise used
system resources in preparation for this document. We also appreciate
the comments and suggestions from our students and members of the
Internet community, particularly after the last version of this
document was circulated, including Mark Delany and the rest of the
gang at the Australian Public Access Network Association, Margaret
Hall (BBN), John Martin (RARE), Tom Maufer (3Com), Carol Monaghan
(Hill Associates), Michael Patton (BBN), N. Todd Pritsky (Hill
Associates), and Brian Williams. Special thanks are due to Joyce
Reynolds for her continued encouragement and direction.
14. References
[1] Anklesaria, F., M. McCahill, P. Lindner, D. Johnson, D. Torrey,
and B. Alberti, "The Internet Gopher Protocol," RFC1436,
University of Minnesota, March 1993.
[2] Berners-Lee, T. and D. Connolly, "Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0,"
RFC1866, MIT/W3C, November 1995.
[3] _____, R. Fielding, and H. Frystyk, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -
HTTP/1.0," RFC1945, MIT/LCS, UC Irvine, MIT/LCS, May 1996.
[4] _____, L. Masinter, and M. McCahill, Editors, "Uniform Resource
Locators (URL)," RFC1738, CERN, Xerox Corp., University of
Minnesota, December 1994.
[5] Bradner, S. "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3," RFC
2026, Harvard University, October 1996.
[6] Comer, D. Internetworking with TCP/IP, Vol. I: Principles,
Protocols, and Architecture, 3/e. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-
Hall, 1995.
[7] Feit, S. TCP/IP: Architecture, Protocols, and Implementation with
IPv6 and IP Security, 2/e. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
[8] Hafner, K. and M. Lyon. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins
of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
[9] Hahn, H. and R. Stout. The Internet Yellow Pages, 3/e. Berkeley
(CA): Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1996.
[10] Harrenstien, K., M. Stahl, and E. Feinler, "NICNAME/WHOIS,"
RFC954, SRI, October 1985.
[11] Hovey, R. and S. Bradner. "The Organizations Involved in the IETF
Standards Process," RFC2028, Digital, Harvard University, October
1996.
[12] Huizer, E. "IETF-ISOC Relationship," RFC2031, SEC, October 1996.
[13] Kantor, B. and P. Lapsley. "Network News Transfer Protocol," RFC
977, U.C. San Diego, U.C. Berkeley, February 1986.
[14] Kessler, G.C. "An Overview of TCP/IP Protocols and the Internet."
URL: http://www.hill.com/library/tcpip.html. Last accessed: 17
February 1997
[15] _____. "IETF-History, Background, and Role in Today's Internet."
URL: http://www.hill.com/library/ietf_hx.html. Last accessed: 17
February 1997.
[16] _____. "Running Your Own DNS." Network VAR, July 1996. (See also
URL: http://www.hill.com/library/dns.html. Last accessed: 17
February 1997.)
[17] Malamud, C. Exploring the Internet: A Technical Travelogue.
Englewood Cliffs (NJ): PTR Prentice Hall, 1992.
[18] Malkin, G.S. and J.K. Reynolds, "F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.: Introduction to
the F.Y.I. notes," FYI 1/RFC1150, Proteon, USC/Information
Sciences Institute, March 1990.
[19] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities,"
STD 13/RFC1034, USC/Information Sciences Institute, November 1987.
[20] National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). "A
Beginner's Guide to HTML." URL:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html. Last
accessed: 2 February 1997.
[21] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation,"
USC/Information Sciences Institute, RFC1591, March 1994.
[22] _____, "Internet Control Message Protocol," USC/Information
Sciences Institute, RFC792, September 1981.
[23] _____, Editor, "Internet Official Protocol Standards,"
STD 1/RFC2000, Internet Architecture Board, February 1997.
[24] _____, "Introduction to the STD Notes," RFC1311, USC/Information
Sciences Institute, March 1992.
[25] _____, T. Li, and Y. Rekhter, "Best Current Practices," BCP 1/RFC
1818, USC/Information Sciences Institute, Cisco Systems, August
1995.
[26] _____ and J. Reynolds, "File Transfer Protocol (FTP),"
STD 9/RFC959, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October 1985.
[27] _____ and J. Reynolds, "TELNET Protocol Specification,"
STD 8/RFC854, USC/Information Sciences Institute, May 1983.
[28] Salus, P.H. Casting The Net: From ARPANET to INTERNET and beyond...
Reading (MA): Addison-Wesley, 1995.
[29] Socolofsky, T.J. and C.J. Kale, "TCP/IP Tutorial," RFC1180, Spider
Systems Ltd., January 1991.
[30] Stevens, W.R. TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols. Reading
(MA): Addison-Wesley, 1994.
[31] Williamson, S., "Transition and Modernization of the Internet
Registration Service," RFC1400, Network Solutions, Inc., March
1993.
[32] Zimmerman, D., "The Finger User Information Protocol," RFC1288,
Rutgers University, December 1991.
15. Authors' Address
Gary C. Kessler
Hill Associates
17 Roosevelt Highway
Colchester, VT 05446
Phone: +1 802-655-8659
Fax: +1 802-655-7974
E-mail: kumquat@hill.com
Steven D. Shepard
Hill Associates
17 Roosevelt Highway
Colchester, VT 05446
Phone: +1 802-655-8646
Fax: +1 802-655-7974
E-mail: s.shepard@hill.com