RFC : Java Glossary

Request For Comment. Numbered Internet standards use this quixotic name. The RFC people have a fetish about not changing a document once it has been published. It never gets marked obsolete. There are never any forward references in it to its replacements or additions. You have to scan all the RFCs looking for relevant ones and sort out manually which ones are still valid. It is a highly error-prone procedure. What they are doing is akin to a hazing ritual. Prepsumably, there is somewhere a proper index to help you avoid obsolete RFCs and find related ones. In the meantime, here is my mini-list of RFCs I have found interesting. Sometimes the older obsolete RFCs are easier to understand, even if they are dated. They can be useful to get a general drift before you plunge into a newer, more lawyerly specification.

RFC 319 Network host status
RFC 768 describes UDP, User Datagram Protocol.
RFC 791 defines the IP protocol.
RFC 815 describes how datagrams are reassembled.
RFC 821 (obsolete) describes the SMTP send mail protocol. See RFC 5321.
RFC 1305 Network time protocol. NTP.
RFC 5322 describes the format of an email address. See RFC 5322.
RFC 959 describes FTP, File Transfer Protocol.
RFC 977 (obsolete) describes NNTP (Net News Transfer Protcol). See RFC 3977.
RFC 1034 and RFC 1035 describe the format of a domain name.
RFC 1035 and RFC 1035 Network time protocol. NTP.
RFC 2045 MIME part 1. See RFC 2045
RFC 1522 (obsolete) MIME part 2, non ASCII. See RFC 2049
RFC 1734 (obsolete) POP3: AUTHentication command. See RFC 5034.
RFC 1738 (obsolete) URL formats. See also RFC 4248
RFC 1777 (obsolete) Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. See RFC 3494.
RFC 1778 (obsolete) The String Representation of Standard Attribute Syntaxes in LDAP. See RFC 3494.
RFC 1876 how latitude and longitude are stored in a DNS record.
RFC 1889 (obsolete) describes the RTP (Real Time Protocol) for streaming audio and video. See RFC 3550.
RFC 1939 POP3: Post Office Protocol - version 3, email protocol for picking up mail.
RFC 1945 HTTP 1.0 specification. See RFC 2616 for the 1.1 specification.
RFC 2044 (obsolete) Unicode UTF-8, See RFC 3629.
RFC 2045 MIME Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies, specifies the various headers used to describe the structure of MIME messages.
RFC 2046 MIME Part Two: Media Types, describes the general structure of the MIME media typing system and defines an initial set of media types.
RFC 2047 MIME Part Three: Message Header Extensions for non-ASCII text
RFC 2048 (obsolete) MIME Part Four: Registration Procedures. See RFC 4288 and RFC 4289.
RFC 2049 MIME Part Five: Conformance Criteria and Examples, Provides some illustrative examples of MIME message formats
RFC 2183 MIME Part Five: Conformance Criteria and HTTP Content-Disposition
RFC 2068 (obsolete) HTTP/1.1 protocol. See RFC 2616.
RFC 2069 (obsolete) describes the format of HTTP headers for digest login user id and password. See RFC 2617.
RFC 2222 (obsolete) POP3: Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL). See RFC 4422 and RFC 4752.
RFC 2279 (obsolete) UTF-8 for encoding both 16-bit and 32-bit Unicode. See RFC 3629.
RFC 2396 (obsolete) describes the format of an URL. See RFC 3986.
RFC 2422 (obsolete) describes the format of a voice-quality 32K ADPCM format sound stream. See RFC 3802.
RFC 2449 POP3: Extension Mechanism
RFC 2616 updates the HTTP 1.1 protocol
RFC 2617 describes the format of HTTP headers for login user id and password.
RFC 2781 UTF-16 for encoding both 16-bit and 32-bit Unicode.
RFC 2822 (obsolete) describes the format of an email address. See RFC 5322.
RFC 2965 HTML state: how cookies are handled
RFC 3156 PGP/MIME: for encrypting email enclosures.
RFC 3206 POP3: The SYS and AUTH POP Response Codes
RFC 3280 (obsolete) X.509 public key certificates. See RFC 5280.
RFC 3467 Overview of DNS
RFC 3494 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
RFC 3550 describes the RTP (Real Time Protocol) for streaming audio and video.
RFC 3629 UTF-8 for encoding both 16-bit and 32-bit, revised.
RFC 3802 describes the format of a voice-quality 32K ADPCM format sound stream.
RFC 3977 describes NNTP (Net News Transfer Protcol).
RFC 3986 describes the format of an URI, IPV6..
RFC 4248 URL formats.
RFC 4288 MIME Part Four: Registration Procedures.
RFC 4289 MIME Part Four: Registration Procedures.
RFC 4422 POP3: Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL).
RFC 4752 POP3: Kerberos.
RFC 4880 Open PGP. PGP encryption for general use now the patent has expired. Inline PGP.
RFC 4938 PPP Over Ethernet (PPPoE).
RFC 5034 POP3: AUTHentication command.
RFC 5126 digital signatures
RFC 5280 X.509 public key certificates
RFC 5321 describes the SMTP send mail protocol.
RFC 5322 describes the format of an email address.

Formatted Partial Index of all RFCs
IETF list of RFCs
Most popular RFCs
Obsolete FAQs
RFC search engine: shows replacements for obsolete RFCs

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