Network News Transport Protocol (nntp)

Charter

Chair(s):
     Eliot Lear, lear@turbo.bio.net

Mailing Lists:
     General Discussion:  ietf-nntp@turbo.bio.net
     To Subscribe:  ietf-nntp-request@turbo.bio.net
     Archive:

Description of Working Group:

     This group will study and review the issues involved with
     netnews transport over the Internet.  Originally released as an
     RFC in February of 1986, NNTP is one of the widest
     implementations of an elective status protocol.  As of this
     writing, the protocol has just passed its fifth birthday, not
     having been updated once.

     Over the years several enhancements have been suggested, and
     several have even been implemented widely.  The intent of this
     Working Group will be to encode the more popular and plausible
     enhancements into an Internet standard.  Included in the inital
     list of changes to be considered are the following:

     o User level and site designated authentication methods;

     o Binary transfer capability;

     o Minimization of line turnaround; and

     o Stronger article selection capability.

     It is expected that public domain software will be released
     concurrently with an RFC, demonstrating the protocol
     enhancements.

Goals and Milestones:

Done       Define scope of work.

Jun 1991   Submit Internet Draft for review and comment.

Jun 1991   Possibly meet at USENIX for further comment.

                                   1





Jul 1991   Meet at IETF for further comment.

Aug 1991   Submit RFC to IESG.



                                   2