TCP/IP Guide

Internet Standards Organizations (ISOC, IAB, IESG, IETF, IRSG, and IRTF)

High-quality, widely accepted open standards become more important as the number of people that use a network grows. The largest network of all is of course the Internet, which connects millions of people on thousands of individual networks into a globe-spanning internetwork. The Internet has revolutionized not only networking and computing, but also communication, business, and even society as a whole. One of the critical factors in the success of the Internet has been its development using open standards.

Of course, nobody sat down one day and said, "Hey, let's create the Internet!" (No, not even Al Gore.) It began as a small research network, and was developed over time ...