idnits 2.17.1 draft-ietf-uswg-fyi7-00.txt: ** The Abstract section seems to be numbered Checking boilerplate required by RFC 5378 and the IETF Trust (see https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Looks like you're using RFC 2026 boilerplate. This must be updated to follow RFC 3978/3979, as updated by RFC 4748. Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/1id-guidelines.txt: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Missing expiration date. The document expiration date should appear on the first and last page. ** The document seems to lack a 1id_guidelines paragraph about 6 months document validity -- however, there's a paragraph with a matching beginning. Boilerplate error? ** The document seems to lack a 1id_guidelines paragraph about the list of current Internet-Drafts. ** The document seems to lack a 1id_guidelines paragraph about the list of Shadow Directories. == No 'Intended status' indicated for this document; assuming Proposed Standard Checking nits according to https://www.ietf.org/id-info/checklist : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** The document seems to lack an Introduction section. ** The document seems to lack an IANA Considerations section. (See Section 2.2 of https://www.ietf.org/id-info/checklist for how to handle the case when there are no actions for IANA.) ** The document seems to lack separate sections for Informative/Normative References. All references will be assumed normative when checking for downward references. Miscellaneous warnings: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- == Line 238 has weird spacing: '...rovider netwo...' == The document doesn't use any RFC 2119 keywords, yet seems to have RFC 2119 boilerplate text. -- The document seems to lack a disclaimer for pre-RFC5378 work, but may have content which was first submitted before 10 November 2008. If you have contacted all the original authors and they are all willing to grant the BCP78 rights to the IETF Trust, then this is fine, and you can ignore this comment. If not, you may need to add the pre-RFC5378 disclaimer. (See the Legal Provisions document at https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info for more information.) -- The document date (October 2001) is 8229 days in the past. Is this intentional? Checking references for intended status: Proposed Standard ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (See RFCs 3967 and 4897 for information about using normative references to lower-maturity documents in RFCs) -- Looks like a reference, but probably isn't: 'FYI 28' on line 76 -- Looks like a reference, but probably isn't: 'RFC 1855' on line 76 == Unused Reference: '3' is defined on line 345, but no explicit reference was found in the text ** Downref: Normative reference to an Informational RFC: RFC 1855 (ref. '3') Summary: 10 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 4 warnings (==), 4 comments (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Internet Draft R. Plzak 3 Document: ARIN 4 G. Malkin 5 Nortel Networks 6 Walter Houser 7 VA 8 October 2001 10 FYI on Questions and Answers 11 Answers to Commonly asked "Experienced Internet User" Questions 13 15 Status of this Memo 17 This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with 18 all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026 [1]. 20 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 21 Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that 22 other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- 23 Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of 24 six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other 25 documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts 26 as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in 27 progress." 28 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 29 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt 30 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 31 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 33 1. Abstract 35 This memo provides information to the experienced Internet user that 36 wants to know more. The term "experienced user" is used to 37 differentiate this user from the new users addressed by FYI4. The 38 term experienced is relative. For the purpose of this memo 39 _experienced_ is any user who is familiar with the concepts 40 described in FYI 4. The information provided in this memo is what 41 may be described as an upper level or top level description of some 42 of the applications and protocols that are in common use on the 43 Internet today. This memo does not provide precise technical 44 descriptions. For these the reader is referred to the appropriate 45 RFC or other documentation. A conscious effort has been made to 46 keep this memo brief but at the same time provide the depth of 47 information necessary to provide a general understanding of the 48 applications and protocols described. 50 Plzak, Malkin, Houser 1 51 2. Conventions used in this document 53 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 54 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in 55 this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC-2119 [2]. 57 3. Doing Things on the Internet or "How Does It Work?" 59 3.1. How does email work? 61 Electronic mail is a lot like regular mail (also called snail mail) 62 Your email message has a greeting to the addressee (or _to_ line), a 63 subject, a body, a closing (or _from_ line), enclosures (also called 64 attachments), carbon copies (cc), and blind carbon copies (bcc). 65 After you write your message, your email software puts all this into 66 an envelop with addressing information that repeats some of these 67 same elements on the envelop. It then looks for a computer with a 68 mail service called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which 69 serves like a mailbox outside your local post office. The SMTP 70 service passes your message to nearby SMTP computers (or servers) 71 who know the destination computer (or domain) for your addressee. If 72 any of these SMTP servers have trouble delivering your message, you 73 will receive a delivery notice explaining the nature of the problem. 74 Because email can be misunderstood or abused, users should be 75 familiar with email netiquette. For more information see Netiquette 76 Guidelines [FYI 28, RFC 1855]. 78 3.2. What is a Mailing List? 80 A mailing list is a collection of email addresses of people 81 interested in a topic like hobbies, product updates, work projects, 82 and electronic newsletters. Announcement lists go one way from the 83 owner to the members. Discussion lists are two-way. Members send 84 their messages to the list name at the mail list server (e.g. mail- 85 list@listserver.com), which in turn distributes it to all members of 86 a list. The list owner reviews messages sent to a moderated 87 discussion list before they are released to the list. Messages to 88 un-moderated discussion lists are not reviewed. You subscribe and 89 unsubscribe using a separate email address for list maintenance, not 90 the list address. Mail lists often have descriptions and procedures 91 you should review before joining. Please stick to the list topic and 92 use the list maintenance address to leave the list. 94 3.3. How does the World Wide Web work? 96 Your web browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.) displays web 97 pages located on various computers operating web servers. These web 98 pages are written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or extensible 99 Markup Language (XML). The web server sends the web pages and 100 images to your PC using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Your 102 Plzak, Malkin, Houser Expires April 2002 2 103 web browser _renders_ the page, placing images and other page 104 elements in their designated positions in the browser window. As 105 you move your cursor across the page, you should notice the cursor 106 changes shape over what are called _hyperlinks._ Typically 107 underlined and in blue, hyperlinks will take you to other web pages, 108 on the same server or on any web server in the world. Pressing the 109 hyperlink tells your browser to contact that destination web server 110 for the next web page. 112 3.4. What is Instant Messaging? 114 Many Internet service providers offer Instant messaging (IM) this 115 popular tool for friends to keep in touch using the Internet. You 116 announce your presence by entering your IM _handle_ or nickname into 117 the IM pop-up window. You can use the same window to see your 118 friends are online. Unlike chat (see below), IM is one-to-one; some 119 chatters will have side conversations using IM. Many of the current 120 IM protocols are not yet standardized so you may not be able to IM 121 with someone on another service provider. 123 3.5. How do I send a lot of data across the Internet? 125 Although you can send files or documents as attachments using email, 126 most SMTP services limit the size or number of attachments. You can 127 use a compression program to either reduce the size of a single 128 attachment or combine several of them into one attachment. 129 Depending on the nature of the attachment(s), its size can be 130 reduced significantly. There are several compression programs that 131 are available on the Internet - some are free. If you routinely 132 have to send a lot of files or a number of large files, you may want 133 to contact your Internet Service Provider to gain access to an HTTP 134 or FTP server. You can then send your addressees the location of the 135 HTTP or FTP server, and they can download these files using FTP 136 instead of clogging up email services with messages with large 137 attachments. 139 4. Getting around the Internet 141 4.1. What is an IP address? 143 An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a binary number that is used to 144 uniquely identify an Internet host. It does not provide 145 geographical information. There are two versions of IP addresses in 146 use on the Internet today - IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4, the older version, 147 is a 32-bit number. It has been in use for many years but as the 148 Internet grew there arose concerns about there being enough to go 149 around so the newer 128-bit IPv6 version was developed. IPv6 is in 150 the early stages of use so the Internet continues to use IPv4 151 addresses. The 32-bit IPv4 address is divided into 4 bytes. In 152 decimal notation each byte is separated by a dot so that a typical 154 Plzak, Malkin, Houser Expires April 2002 3 155 address looks like this: 192.168.202.7. The 128 bits of the IPv6 156 address are divided into eight (8) groups of 16 bits. The groups 157 are separated by a colon and are written in hexadecimal notation. 158 An IPv6 address looks like this: 159 FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210. Thankfully users don't 160 have to remember IP addresses to use the Internet - the Domain Name 161 System (DNS) translates easily remembered names to addresses. 163 4.2. What is a packet? 165 The word "packet" may be used to reference any unit of transmittable 166 information where the actual layer associated with the packet is 167 either implicit or unimportant. A packet on the wire is properly 168 referred to as a frame. A network layer (IP) packet is called a 169 datagram (the name was coined by Jon Postel). A transport layer 170 (TCP or UDP) packet is called a segment. The packet that the 171 application hands to the network for transmission, is called a 172 packet. 174 4.3. What is a router? 176 A device which forwards traffic between (sub)networks based on layer 177 3 (network layer) information. The routing decision is based on 178 information maintained in routing tables, often constructed by 179 routing protocols. Routers used to be referred to as gateways, 180 which is currently too generic a term. Properly, a router is a 181 layer-3 gateway. A bridge, by way of example, is a layer-2 gateway. 182 Routing is the process of determining the correct path for a packet. 183 Forwarding is the process by which a packet is received on one 184 interface and transmitted on another. 186 4.4. How are packets routed? 188 When a packet (more properly, a datagram) is received on a router's 189 interface, its IP header is examined. If it fails any of several 190 validity checks, it is discarded and an ICMP error message is 191 (usually) sent to the originator of the datagram. The datagram's 192 destination address is then examined. If it specifies one of the 193 router's local addresses, or it is a broadcast, it is delivered to 194 the handler for the protocol specified in the header. If it is a 195 multicast, it may be delivered locally (if the router is receiving 196 that specific address). It may also be forwarded according to the 197 set of rules or routing information governing that multicast 198 address. If the datagram is for any other destination, the best 199 path to that destination (more specifically, the next hop on the 200 path) is determined and the packet is sent out the interface that 201 leads to that next hop. The determination of the best path (for 202 unicast and multicast) datagrams is made based on information in the 203 router's routing tables. That table is populated by configured 205 Plzak, Malkin, Houser Expires April 2002 4 206 information (e.g., static routes), or learned information from a 207 routing protocol (e.g., RIP, OSPG, BGP-4). In most routers, routing 208 information for unicast and multicast routes are kept in separate 209 tables and populated using different routing protocols. For unicast 210 destinations, there are several types of routes: host, subnet, 211 network, supernet and default. Each type of route is less specific 212 than the one before it. For example, a host route specifies one and 213 only one host (i.e., its subnet mask is 255.255.255.255), while a 214 subnet route points to all of the hosts on a specific subnet. The 215 default route specifies the path for a datagram for which no other 216 type of route is available. This hierarchy is referred to as 217 longest match because the preference is for routes which have longer 218 (i.e., more 1-bits) subnet masks, the default route having a mask of 219 0.0.0.0. 221 4.5. What is DNS? 223 DNS is the Domain Name System. It is a mechanism by which host 224 names can be converted (resolved) into Internet addresses. A Fully 225 Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) has two parts: the hostname, which is 226 unique within the domain; and the domain name, which is globally 227 unique. For example, atlas.supports.world.com has "atlas" as a 228 hostname and "supports.world.com" as a domain name. The domain name 229 is also made of multiple parts. In this example, "com" is the Top 230 Level Domain (TLD), "world" is the domain assigned out of com, and 231 "supports" is a sub-domain chosen by the owner of world. There may 232 be zero or more sub-domains. The TLD is the space from which the 233 domain is assigned. Contrary to popular belief, there are more 234 domains than com. Originally, "com" was used for vendors that 235 created networking hardware and software; today, it has become the 236 catchall for domain trash. Fortunately, the other domains (except, 237 perhaps, "net" and _org_) have managed to retain their original 238 intents. "Net" is for service provider networks (e.g., ISPs). 239 "Org" is for non-profit organizations. The other TLDs have far more 240 rigid controls. "Edu" is for 4-year colleges (although some 2-year 241 institutions were grand fathered in). "Mil" is the U.S. military, 242 and "gov" is the 243 U.S. government. Two-letter TLDs are country codes (e.g., "us" for 244 the United States, "au" for Australia). The sub-domains under the 245 country domains are managed by their respective countries. In the 246 U.S., for example, there is one sub-domain for each state (e.g., 247 "ma.us" for Massachusetts, "ny.us" for New York). 249 4.6. How does DNS work? 251 The Domain Name System consists of a group of computers called name 252 servers. These servers contain a special file called a zone file 253 that contains the information necessary to resolve the names of the 254 hosts in the domain into IP addresses or provide a reference to the 255 location of the zone file for a subdomain. These servers are 256 related to each other in the same hierarchical manner as the domains 258 Plzak, Malkin, Houser Expires April 2002 5 259 they support. Names are resolved to numbers in the following 260 manner: 262 The application that is requesting the resolution of a name to an IP 263 address contacts its local server. If the local server knows the 264 answer it provides it to the requestor. If it does not, it must 265 seek the answer elsewhere. 267 The search begins at the top of DNS tree, the root. The local 268 server asks the root server for the answer. The root server 269 provides a partial answer, in that it will identify the servers for 270 the TLD that contains the name. The local server then asks the TLD 271 server for the answer. The TLD server provides a partial answer. 272 It identifies the servers for the subdomain of TLD that contains the 273 name. The search continues in a similar manner until the server 274 that has the zone file that contains the entire name is located. 275 This server then provides the IP number. 277 4.7. What is an intranet? 279 An intranet is a collection of networks that may or may not be 280 connected to the Internet. Generally, an intranet is maintained and 281 administered by an organization that may be a commercial firm or a 282 government organization. If the intranet is connected to the 283 Internet it is usually done at selected points that control access 284 from the intranet to the Internet and control access from the 285 Internet to the intranet. Typically, only certain services such as 286 email are permitted to flow across these control points. 288 4.8. What is Tunneling? 290 Tunneling is the term applied to establishing an end-to-end 291 connection for the purpose of providing protected transfer of 292 information across the Internet. One typical method of doing this 293 is encrypt packets at the transmission end and decrypt them at the 294 reception end. 296 5. Security Considerations 298 5.1 How do I protect my personal information when I surf the Internet? 300 The ubiquitous nature of the Internet has resulted in widespread 301 concern for the loss of personal privacy. Once your privacy is 302 compromised, you cannot get it back. The US Federal Trade Commission 303 http://WWW.FTC.GOV has established voluntary Fair Information 304 Practices covering notice, consent, access and security. The FTC 305 surveyed over 300 web sites that collect personal information and 306 found that only 20 percent discussed all four elements. In a sample 307 of more popular web sites, only 42 percent covered all four elements 308 of privacy protection. The FTC found that the bankrupt eCommerce 310 Plzak, Malkin, Houser Expires April 2002 6 311 vendor Toysmart violated the FTC Act by attempting to sell customer 312 data after claiming that this data would never be disclosed to a 313 third party. Criminals can use your personal data to steal your 314 identity and credit rating. California Public Interest Research 315 Group found that victims spent between two and four years removing 316 an average of $18,000 in fraudulent card charges charges. Reputable 317 sites should tell you how they are protecting your information by 318 adhering to the FTC's recommended practices. If any of their 319 statements make you uncomfortable, leave the items blank or enter 320 imaginary data. If you do enter your data, print the notice for your 321 files in case it is violated. 323 5.2 What steps should I take to protect myself when shopping on the 324 Internet? 326 Know the vendor you are dealing with. Only enter credit card 327 information when suing a secure connection to the merchant; look for 328 the little padlock at the bottom of your web browser. US citizens 329 should use a credit card because US law limits your liability for 330 unauthorized charges to $50 dollars. Debit cards do not have such a 331 limit. Use a credit card with a low credit limit. Check your credit 332 history periodically with credit bureaus; thieves can open new 333 accounts using your stolen personal data unbeknownst to you. The US 334 Federal Trade Commission http://www.ftc.gov offers valuable 336 additional suggestions for online shoppers. 337 6. References 339 [1] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision 3", BCP 340 9, RFC 2026, October 1996. 342 [2] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement 343 Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 345 [3] Hambridge, S. "Netiquette Guidelines", RFC 1855, October 1995. 347 Plzak, Malkin, Houser Expires April 2002 7 348 7. Author's Addresses 350 Raymond Plzak 351 ARIN 352 4506 Daly Drive, Suite 200 353 Chantilly, VA 20151 354 Phone: +1.703.227.9850 355 Email: plzak@arin.net 357 Gary Malkin 358 Nortel Networks 359 600 Tech Park 360 Billerica, MA 01621 361 Phone: +1.978.288.3684 362 Email: gmalkin@nortelnetworks.com 364 Walter Houser 365 Program Coordination Staff (045APC) 366 Department of Veterans Affairs 367 810 Vermont Avenue 368 Washington DC 20420 369 Email: houser.walt@forum.va.gov 371 Full Copyright Statement 372 "Copyright (C) The Internet Society (date). All Rights Reserved. 373 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to 374 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it 375 or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published 376 and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any 377 kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph 378 are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this 379 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing 380 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other 381 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of 382 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for 383 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be 384 followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than 385 English. 387 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be 388 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. 390 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an 391 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING 392 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING 393 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION 394 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF 395 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 397 Plzak, Malkin, Houser Expires April 2002 8