What Are “Security Handbooks”: site/Internet by IETF?

The IETF is an all volunteer group of network engineers Microsoft, CISCO, IBM and other leading manufacturers. IETF is opened to anyone interested to discuss security standards, and types of network standards for the internet. Much of its work is through mailing list. Then there are three meetings in a year. The work is divided among working groups that define security standards and data security policy for the internet.

Its mission includes:

• To identify technical problems with the internet and propose solutions
• Give clear details on development or use of protocols to be used to solve the technical snags.
• Making recommendations to IESG-Internet Engineering Steering Group regarding use and standardization of protocols
• Facilitating the transfer of technology from IRTF-Internet Research Task Force to the internet community
• More importantly it serves as a forum for exchange of information. Researchers, users, students, network managers, vendors etc… are all open to air their views on any technicality and if it is a pressing need solutions are discussed.

IETF is open to development and has brought about many standards for the growth of internet. Anyone can propose a protocol to the IETF, The protocol must have some working prototype and must get a rough consensus from the working groups before it can be approved as a standard. Its greatest achievement is the protocols for the internet. This has been functional despite many new services being added to the internet.

Request For Comments

Internet Drafts are published once and is never revised. These drafts number to more that 3000 documents that are known as request for comments. These documents are used by Enterprise network managers and other networks managers. Standards for many tasks on the internet are outlined by the RFC drafts and many of them include standards for

• Configuring hosts
• Authentication of users
• Monitoring networks

Request for Comments: 1180 is a tutorial on the TCP/IP protocol suite. There are many protocols of the TCP/IP suite that are in vogue presently. A few major protocols are outlined according to the layer in the IP model

Network Layer Protocols

• ARP -Address Resolution Protocol
• IP - Internet Protocol.
• IPv6 - Internet Protocol version 6.
• MPLS - Multi-Protocol Label Switching.

Continue to : RFC’s and security standards

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