Request For Comments

Procedure to establish new standards or to propose new standards on the Internet  . Each standard, each protocol  has a related RFC (followed by a reference number). For example, RFC 822 is the Internet standard for email . RFCs guide the development of the Internet.

The document series, begun in 1969, which describes the Internet suite of protocols and related experiments. Not all (in fact very few) RFCs describe Internet standards, but all Internet standards are written up as RFCs. The RFC series of documents is unusual in that the proposed protocols are forwarded by the Internet research and development community, acting on their own behalf, as opposed to the formally reviewed and standardized protocols that are promoted by organizations such as CCITT and ANSI. See also: For Your Information, STD.

(Request for Comments) The documents that contain the standards and other information for the TCP/IP protocols and the Internet in general. They can be found at several sites through anonymous FTP .