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INTRODUCTION

The Identification Protocol (a.k.a., "ident", a.k.a., "the Ident Protocol") provides a means to determine the identity of a user of a particular TCP connection. Given a TCP port number pair, it returns a character string which identifies the owner of that connection on the server's system.

The Identification Protocol was formerly called the Authentication Server Protocol. It has been renamed to better reflect its function. This document is a product of the TCP Client Identity Protocol Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).