Internet standards

[troy67]

What standards underlie the operation of the Internet?

[marks]

There are many standards (and recommendations) that make the Internet work. Networking standards such as IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) and on top of them are the main protocols Internet Protocol (IPv4 and IPv6), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP, RFC793) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP, RFC768). The remainder utilise these transport protocol to provide services such as the Domain Name Service (DNS), Web Sites (HTTP), Email (SMTP/POP/IMAP), Newsgroups (NNTP), File transfer (FTP), Telnet, SSH, ... the list is quite long. Many of the "standards" are only recommendations and can be found at http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/ (Requests For Comment) For example, TCP is defined in RFC 793, and IPv4 is in RFC 791

[mellyJ]

In essence, the Internet is supposed to be a free, unregulated medium. But it is essentially governed by the laws of the country in which an Internet service provider is based. In the UK the government is working with ISPs and other bodies to form a working relationship where self regulation and standardisation (rather than actual laws) are likely to become the norm. To find out more info on Internet regulation click on: http://bubl.ac.uk/link/i/internetregulation-law.ht
m To find out more information on the UK government�s involvement with Internet regulation click on: http://www.dti.gov.uk/cii/regulatory/internetpolic
y/index.shtml For information of the Internet Watch Foundation click on: http://www.iwf.org.uk For information on reporting illegal and harmful content on the Internet click on: http://www.inhope.org or http://www.saferinternet.org/