At the Minneapolis meeting (3/99), a BOF was held to explore the issues of home networking. The goal of the BOF was to discuss how Networks in the Small (e.g., Home Networks) can and should work and to determine if there is standards work to be done. The overall theme was what needs to be done to make plug-and-play really work in an IP environment. As a comparison point, Appletalk, IPX & NetBIOS all just work with no manual configuration of individual nodes. This isn't the case with IP where either manual configuration is needed or servers must be present (e.g., DHCP, DNS, etc.). Home networks include environments where the presence of servers cannot be assumed. However, Appletalk, IPX and NetBIOS do not scale to larger environments, and NITs solutions will need to transition to and coexist with larger environments in a reasonable fashion. This WG will study the requirements for "home networking". Home networks can include (but are not limited to) environments where neither DNS servers nor DHCP servers are present. The WG will also survey existing protocols that address the problem of autoconfiguration, with the aim of understanding whether existing IP protocols are adequate to solve the needs for autoconfiguration in the "home" environment, or whether additional protocols are needed. This WG will produce two informational documents. The first describes the requirements for the configuration information and services a node needs in order to fully participate on home networks and/or the Internet at large. The second details a 'profile' specifying which protocols specifically satisfy the requirements outlined in the first document. If it is determined that no existing standard protocol fulfills the requirements, or that existing protocols are insufficient or inadequate, the profile may specify that a new protocol is required or recommend a change to an existing standard to apply to the NITS environment. This WG will not develop new protocols. In the event that protocol work is deemed necessary, a followup WG will be chartered.