RFC 1

The very first RFC!!!

It was written by Steve Crocker, published at the 7th April 1969 and describes the requirements of Software communicating from HOST-to-HOST via IMPs.

I wonder what the people who worked on the ARPANET this time would have said, when you told them, that one day, Internet users from alle over the world will great a database containing Everything with this technology...

Steve Crocker wrote the first RFC. Note that it wasn't a computer file at all; The first RFCs were all on paper, and circulated via mail! (That's why the copy you can find at rfc-editor.org has the note "put into machine readable form ... by Celeste Anderson 3/97").

It may be worth mentioning that this RFC was written down in a bathroom over night... this just shows the great contrast between formal, committee-designed protocols and "academic toys". =)

Source: Hafner & Lyon: Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The origins of the Internet

RFC 1 was the first ever RFC, entitled “Host Software” and published by Steve Crocker on April 7th of 1969. The RFC outlined in technical terms how computers on the ARPANET would interface and handshake with each other – somewhat of a precursor to TCP/IP.

Crocker wrote the RFC late at night in his bathroom, so as to avoid awakening his roommates.

Since RFC 1, RFCs have become the principal way of open protocol discussion and specification in the world of computer networking.