Must read RFC's

[sweller]

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. I have been wanting to read lots of RFC's but I was wondering what are the best RFC's to read for the network industry of today and tomorrow. I have a long flight ahead of me and I thought some reading material would be nice to have.

Thanks for any help you can give me!
Scott

[Seb Rupik]

Depends on the area you are working in, For me, the following are fundemental topics with plenty of content to warrant multiple reads.

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc793

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3579

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4301

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4861

In fairness, anything which is a standard is a must read....when you find the time!

cheers,

Seb.

[KELLEYD]

I would always encourage starting with RFC-1925.

RFC-1149 is always a good read, and RFC-2549 is worth a subsequent glance, as it defines QoS for 1149. RFC-6214 is the IPv6 adaptation.

Okay, joking aside, I agree with Seb, but I would expand on the thought. IP, OSPF, TCP, SNMP, etc...  These fundamental protocols put food on your table and a roof over your head. They are your livelihood.  Understanding as much as you possibly can understand about the protocols and how they work is a key to your long-term success. I would strongly encourage you to not just read the specifications for the protocols that you work with when you have the time. I would advise you to make the time to do so.

I didn't have this realization until probably 15 or 20 years into my career. When I did, I just started reading. One day I was working on an OSPF problem, so that night, I dug into RFC-2328, which naturally led me into RFC-5340. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Just my 2c + my sad attempt at comedy.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

As a side note to what the others have posted, be prepared when reading RFC standards to find occasional differences between what they say and some vendor implementations.