NAT

How it is used

Said like the word 'nat'. Engineers configure NAT rules, put servers behind NAT and troubleshoot applications that break behind NAT, such as some VoIP and VPN setups. Operators also use carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT) to share public addresses among many customers.

Example sentences

1. All 300 office PCs go out to the internet through NAT on a single public address.

2. The camera works locally but not from outside because there's no NAT rule for it.

Common collocations

• NAT rule
• behind NAT
• static NAT
• carrier-grade NAT
• configure NAT

Related terms

• private IP addressAn IP address from the ranges reserved for internal networks, such as 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16, which cannot be routed on the public internet.
• port forwardingA NAT rule that sends traffic arriving on a public IP address and port to a specific device and port inside a private network, so that an internal service can be reached from outside.
• IPv4Version 4 of the Internet Protocol, which uses 32-bit addresses written as four numbers from 0 to 255 separated by dots, such as 192.168.10.5; it allows about 4.3 billion addresses.
• firewallA hardware device or software that checks network traffic against a set of rules and allows or blocks it, protecting a network from unwanted access.
• routerA device that connects different networks and decides, packet by packet, the best path for data to reach its destination, usually based on IP addresses.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• NAT · Software Engineering

More terms: IP Addressing

• IP address
• subnet
• default gateway
• IPv6
• subnet mask
• static IP address
• CIDR