Stuart McLachlan
stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Thu Apr 21 19:31:07 CDT 2005
On 22 Apr 2005 at 10:05, Darren Dick wrote:
> Hi Stuart
> Thanks (again) for the reply
> Firstly, what's RFC 2821?
>
RFC = Request For Comments. The name of the result and the process for
creating a standard on the Internet. New standards are proposed and
published on line, as a "Request For Comments." The Internet Engineering
Task Force is a consensus-building body that facilitates discussion, and
eventually a new standard is established, but the reference number/name for
the standard retains the acronym RFC
See http://www.rfc.net/
As for RFC 2821:
<quote>
Network Working Group J. Klensin, Editor
Request for Comments: 2821 AT&T Laboratories
Obsoletes: 821, 974, 1869 April 2001
Updates: 1123
Category: Standards Track
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document is a self-contained specification of the basic protocol
for the Internet electronic mail transport. It consolidates, updates
and clarifies, but doesn't add new or change existing functionality
of the following:
- the original SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) specification of
RFC 821 [30],
- domain name system requirements and implications for mail
transport from RFC 1035 [22] and RFC 974 [27],
- the clarifications and applicability statements in RFC 1123 [2],
and
- material drawn from the SMTP Extension mechanisms [19].
It obsoletes RFC 821, RFC 974, and updates RFC 1123 (replaces the
mail transport materials of RFC 1123). However, RFC 821 specifies
some features that were not in significant use in the Internet by the
mid-1990s and (in appendices) some additional transport models.
Those sections are omitted here in the interest of clarity and
brevity; readers needing them should refer to RFC 821.
</quote>
You really should be familiar with the relevant RFCs if you are
programmatically accessing internet services be they ftp, http, email or
whatever.
--
Stuart