RFC 788 · UNKNOWN · 1981 MON · 14 SEP 2026

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

By J. Postel · Published November 1981 · DOI 10.17487/RFC0788

Overview

RFC 788, “Simple Mail Transfer Protocol”, is an Unknown document published in November 1981 by J. Postel. It obsoletes RFC 780. It has been obsoleted by RFC 821 — refer to the newer document for the authoritative version. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.

What “Unknown” means

The standards-track status of this early RFC was never formally classified.

Read this RFC

The canonical text of RFC 788 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in TXT,HTML.

Read on rfc-editor.org Plain text › HTML › IETF Datatracker › DOI link ›
Relationships to other RFCs
This RFC obsoletes
RFC 780
Obsoleted by
RFC 821
Other RFCs from 1981