RFC 748: Telnet randomly-lose option

NWG/RFC# 748 MRC 1-APR-78 44125
Telnet Randomly-Lose Option



Network Working Group M. Crispin
Request for Comments 748 SU-AI
NIC 44125 1 April 1978

 TELNET RANDOMLY-LOSE Option

1. Command name and code.

 RANDOMLY-LOSE 256

2. Command meanings.

 IAC WILL RANDOMLY-LOSE

 The sender of this command REQUESTS permission to, or confirms
 that it will, randomly lose.

 IAC WON'T RANDOMLY-LOSE

 The sender of this command REFUSES to randomly lose.

 IAC DO RANDOMLY-LOSE

 The sender of this command REQUESTS that the receiver, or grants
 the receiver permission to, randomly lose.

 IAC DON'T RANDOMLY-LOSE

 The command sender DEMANDS that the receiver not randomly lose.

3. Default.

 WON'T RANDOMLY-LOSE

 DON'T RANDOMLY-LOSE

 i.e., random lossage will not happen.

4. Motivation for the option.

 Several hosts appear to provide random lossage, such as system
 crashes, lost data, incorrectly functioning programs, etc., as part
 of their services. These services are often undocumented and are in
 general quite confusing to the novice user. A general means is
 needed to allow the user to disable these features.







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NWG/RFC# 748 MRC 1-APR-78 44125
Telnet Randomly-Lose Option



5. Description of the option.

 The normal mode does not allow random lossage; therefore the system
 is not allowed to crash, mung user files, etc. If the server wants
 to provide random lossage, it must first ask for permission from the
 user by sending IAC WILL RANDOMLY-LOSE.

 If the user wants to permit the server to randomly lose, it replys
 with IAC DO RANDOMLY-LOSE. Otherwise it sends IAC DONT
 RANDOMLY-LOSE, and the server is forbidden from randomly losing.

 Alternatively, the user could request the server to randomly lose, by
 sending IAC DO RANDOMLY-LOSE, and the server will either reply with
 IAC WILL RANDOMLY-LOSE, meaning that it will then proceed to do some
 random lossage (garbaging disk files is recommended for an initial
 implementation). Or, it could send IAC WONT RANDOMLY-LOSE, meaning
 that it insists upon being reliable.

 Since this is implemented as a TELNET option, it is expected that
 servers which do not implement this option will not randomly lose;
 ie, they will provide 100% reliable uptime.































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RFC 748: Telnet randomly-lose option