While most RFCs are just proposals, miscellaneous protocol descriptions, or opinion/information documents, these few protocols are the true “Internet standards” among the RFCs.

This page was derived from section 3.1 of RFC 5000, the Internet Official Protocol Standards document. This document is re-issued occasionally, always numbered so as to be evenly-divisible by 100, so RFC 5100 or whatever might be out by the time you read this, with new protocols not mentioned here. Not every possible number in that series is used for this purpose. The current version’s replacement could be called RFC 5200, or 5300, or... It depends on how many protocols get dubbed “official” by the time the next number in the series comes around.

RFC 5000 (STD 1) — Internet Official Protocol Standards, RFC Editor, 5/2008, 75 pp.

RFC 1700 (STD 2) — Assigned Numbers, J. Reynolds, J. Postel, 10/20/1994, 320 pp.

RFC 1122 (STD 3) — Requirements for Internet Hosts - Communication layers, R. Braden, 10/1/1989, 116 pp.

RFC 1123 (STD 3) — Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and support, R. Braden, 10/1/1989, 98 pp.

RFC 791 (STD 5) — Internet Protocol, J. Postel, 9/1/1981, 45 pp., ammended by RFC 950, RFC 919, RFC 922

RFC 792 (STD 5) — Internet Control Message Protocol, J. Postel, 9/1/1981, 21 pp.

RFC 1112 (STD 5) — Host extensions for IP multicasting, S. Deering, 8/1/1989, 17 pp.

RFC 768 (STD 6) — User Datagram Protocol, J. Postel, 8/28/1980, 3 pp.

RFC 793 (STD 7) — Transmission Control Protocol, J. Postel, 9/1/1981, 85 pp.

RFC 854 (STD 8) — Telnet Protocol specification, J. Postel, J. Reynolds, 5/1/1983, 15 pp.

RFC 855 (STD 8) — Telnet option specifications, J. Postel, J. Reynolds, 5/1/1983, 4 pp.

RFC 959 (STD 9) — File Transfer Protocol, J. Postel, J. Reynolds, 10/1/1985, 69 pp., updated by RFC 2228, RFC 2640

RFC 821 (STD 10) — Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, J. Postel, 8/1/1982, 58 pp.

RFC 1869 (STD 10) — SMTP Service Extensions, J. Klensin, N. Freed, M. Rose, E. Stefferud, D. Crocker, 11/6/1995, 11 pp.

RFC 1870 (STD 10) — SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration, J. Klensin, N. Freed, K. Moore, 11/6/1995, 9 pp.

RFC 822 (STD 11) — Standard for the format of ARPA Internet text messages, D. Crocker, 8/13/1982, 47 pp., updated by RFC 1327

RFC 1049 (STD 11) — Content-type header field for Internet messages, M. Sirbu, 3/1/1988, 8 pp., updated by RFC 1505

RFC 1034 (STD 13) — Domain names - concepts and facilities, P. Mockapetris, 11/1/1987, 55 pp., updated by RFC 2535, RFC 2308, RFC 2181, RFC 1982, RFC 1876, RFC 1348, RFC 1183, RFC 1101

RFC 1035 (STD 13) — Domain names - implementation and specification, P. Mockapetris, 11/1/1987, 55 pp., updated by RFC 2535, RFC 2308, RFC 2181, RFC 2137, RFC 2136, RFC 1996, RFC 1995, RFC 1982, RFC 1876, RFC 1348, RFC 1183, RFC 1101

RFC 974 (STD 14) — Mail routing and the domain system, C. Partridge, 1/1/1986, 7 pp.

RFC 1157 (STD 15) — A Simple Network Management Protocol, M. Schoffstall, M. Fedor, J. Davin, J. Case, 5/10/1990, 36 pp., Updates RFC 1098.

RFC 1212 (STD 16) — Concise MIB Definitions, K. McCloghrie, M. Rose, 3/26/1991, 19 pp.

RFC 1155 (STD 17) — Structure and Identification of Management Information for TCP/IP-based Internets, K. McCloghrie, M. Rose, 5/10/1990, 22 pp.

RFC 1212 (STD 17) — Management Information Base for Network Management of TCP/IP-based internets: MIB-II, K. McCloghrie, M. Rose, 3/26/1991, 70 pp., updated by RFC 2011, RFC 2012, RFC 2013.

RFC 1001 (STD 19) — Protocol standard for a NetBIOS service on a TCP/UDP transport: Concepts and methods, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, End-to-End Services Task Force, Internet Activities Board, NetBIOS Working Group, 3/1/1987, 68 pp.

RFC 1002 (STD 19) — Protocol standard for a NetBIOS service on a TCP/UDP transport: Detailed specifications, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, End-to-End Services Task Force, Internet Activities Board, NetBIOS Working Group, 3/1/1987, 85 pp.

RFC 862 (STD 20) — Echo Protocol, J. Postel, 5/1/1983, 1 pp.

RFC 863 (STD 21) — Discard Protocol, J. Postel, 5/1/1983, 1 pp.

RFC 864 (STD 22) — Character Generator Protocol, J. Postel, 5/1/1983, 3 pp.

RFC 865 (STD 23) — Quote of the Day Protocol, J. Postel, 5/1/1983, 1 pp.

RFC 866 (STD 24) — Active users, J. Postel, 5/1/1983, 1 pp.

RFC 867 (STD 25) — Daytime Protocol, J. Postel, 5/1/1983, 2 pp.

RFC 868 (STD 26) — Time Protocol, K. Harrenstein, J. Postel, 5/1/1983, 2 pp.

RFC 1350 (STD 33) — The TFTP Protocol (Revision 2), K. Sollins, 7/10/1992, 11 pp., updated by RFC 1782, RFC 1783, RFC 1784, RFC 1785

RFC 1006 (STD 35) — ISO transport services on top of the TCP: Version: 3, D. Cass, M. Rose, 5/1/1987, 17 pp.

RFC 826 (STD 37) — Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol, D. Plummer, 11/1/1982, 10 pp.

RFC 903 (STD 38) — Reverse Address Resolution Protocol, R. Finlayson, T. Mann, J. Mogul, M. Theimer, 6/1/1984, 4 pp.

RFC 1643 (STD 50) — Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet-like Interface Types, F. Kastenholz, 7/13/1994, 19 pp.

RFC 1661 (STD 51) — The Point-to-Point Protocol, W. Simpson, 7/21/1994, 54 pp.

RFC 1662 (STD 51) — PPP in HDLC-like Framing, W. Simpson, 7/21/1994, 27 pp.

RFC 1209 (STD 52) — The Transmission of IP Datagrams over the SMDS Service, J. Lawrence, D. Piscitello, 3/6/1991, 11 pp.

RFC 1939 (STD 53) — Post Office Protocol - Version 3, J. Myers, M. Rose, 5/14/1996, 23 pp.

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