The original NET-FAQ was written by Matt Welsh and Terry Dawson. NET-FAQ answered frequently asked questions about networking for Linux (at a time before the Linux Documentation Project had formally started). This document covered the very early development versions of the Linux Networking Kernel. The NET-2-HOWTO superseded the NET-FAQ, and it was one of the original LDP HOWTO documents. It covered what was called "version 2" (and subsequently "version 3") of the Linux kernel Networking software. NET-2_HOWTO in turn superseded it, and relates only to version 4 of the Linux Networking Kernel (ie: kernel releases 2.x and 2.2.x. ).
Previous versions of this document became quite large because of the enormous amount of material that fell within its scope. To help reduce this problem, a number of HOWTOs dealing with specific networking topics have been produced. This document will provide pointers to them where relevant, and it will cover those areas not yet reviewed by other documents.