





Network Working Group                                           Buz Owen
RFC # 552                                                       SDAC-TIP
NIC # 17809                                                13 July, 1973


                  Single access to Standard Protocols


Isn't the idea of a single access protocol simple enough that one could
be specified, and a socket reserved for it, before the proposed mail
protocol becomes official?  The result would be that MP could be the
first protocol implemented under UULP (or whatever it is to be called),
and the other protocols could be "moved" as soon as any problems in the
official specifications could be worked out, and at the convenience of
implementors.

The single access protocol might have the following commands:

    USER
    PASS
    ACCT
    MAIL
    FTP
    RJS
    DRS (?)
    HELP (?)
    BYE

following Jim White's idea of nested command and reply spaces.

This doesn't address the question of "what is free", or of the
interrelationships between the various protocols, but it doesn't make
those problem any worse, only a little different.










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Owen                                                            [Page 1]

