All software that interacts with the public Internet should adhere to a series of specifications that went through a publishing and standardization process. These documents are called RFC's (Request For Comments). When this process was first created the specifications were commented upon and altered. In the present, they are normally updated and the old specification is normally retired as obsolete.

The Request for Comments (RFCs)

The Requests for Comments (RFC) document series is a set of technical and organizational notes about the Internet (originally the ARPANET), beginning in 1969. Memos in the RFC series discuss many aspects of computer networking, including protocols, procedures, programs, and concepts, as well as meeting notes, opinions, and sometimes humor. The BCP series explains Best Current Practices in implementation. For more information on the history of the RFC series, see href="ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2555.txt">30 years of
RFCs.

The official specification documents of the Internet Protocol suite that are defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force IETF) and the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG ) are recorded and published as standards track RFCs. As a result, the RFC publication process plays an important role in the Internet standards
process. RFCs must first be published as Internet Drafts.

The RFC-Editor