2.2. Prior knowledge

As the title implies, this is the "Advanced" HOWTO. While by no means rocket science, some prior knowledge is assumed.

Here are some other references which might help teach you more:

Rusty Russell's networking-concepts-HOWTO: Very nice introduction, explaining what a network is, and how it is connected to other networks.
Linux Networking-HOWTO (Previously the Net-3 HOWTO): Great stuff, although very verbose. It teaches you a lot of stuff that's already configured if you are able to connect to the Internet. Should be located in /usr/doc/HOWTO/NET3-4-HOWTO.txt but can be also be found online.