Important RFCs: About

I derived most of the information in the Important RFCs site from the InterNIC's "RFC Index" document, and from the Internet Official Protocol Standards document (RFC 2600 at the time of this writing).

Though the entries in my list are similar to the ones in RFC 2600, there are serveral differences. I've changed the arrangement of each entry from the way it appears in the RFC Index, and I've changed and enhanced the original formatting. More drastically, I have removed some of the information available in the RFC Index for brevity and clarity.

I've also "snapped" links. The RFC Index uses a scheme where updated RFCs refer to their update documents, and these updates refer back to the documents they update. These cross-references can get pretty tangled, so I've tried to simply point you to the current document. For example, the RFC Index entry for RFC 822 says that it is updated by RFC 987. If you go to the entry for RFC 987, it says that it was updated by RFC 1026, which was updated by RFC 1138. The RFC 822 entry also says that RFC 1327 updates it, but if you go to that entry, you find that it obsoletes RFC 1138, the last document in the chain started by RFC 987! So, in my entry for RFC 822, I simply list RFC 1327 and call it good.

This site is not official or sanctioned by any of the Powers that Be. (In fact, they probably don't even know that it exists.) I compiled this list partly for my own reference, and I've made it public in the hope that it will be useful to the Internet at large. The bottom line is that if you want the official information, get the RFC index and the Internet Official Protocol Standards document and go from there. If you find the Important RFC List useful, too, that's also fine. Just don't make any bar bets based on it. B-)