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Appendix F NAT
P-2304R-P1 Series User’s Guide
260
What NAT Does
In the simplest form, NAT changes the source IP address in a packet received from a
subscriber (the inside local address) to another (the inside global address) before forwarding
the packet to the WAN side. When the response comes back, NAT translates the destination
address (the inside global address) back to the inside local address before forwarding it to the
original inside host. Note that the IP address (either local or global) of an outside host is never
changed.
The global IP addresses for the inside hosts can be either static or dynamically assigned by the
ISP. In addition, you can designate servers (for example a web server and a telnet server) on
your local network and make them accessible to the outside world. If you do not define any
servers (for Many-to-One and Many-to-Many Overload mapping), NAT offers the additional
benefit of firewall protection. With no servers defined, your ZyXEL Device filters out all
incoming inquiries, thus preventing intruders from probing your network. For more
information on IP address translation, refer to RFC 1631, The IP Network Address Translator
(NAT).
How NAT Works
Each packet has two addresses – a source address and a destination address. For outgoing
packets, the ILA (Inside Local Address) is the source address on the LAN, and the IGA (Inside
Global Address) is the source address on the WAN. For incoming packets, the ILA is the
destination address on the LAN, and the IGA is the destination address on the WAN. NAT
maps private (local) IP addresses to globally unique ones required for communication with
hosts on other networks. It replaces the original IP source address (and TCP or UDP source
port numbers for Many-to-One and Many-to-Many Overload NAT mapping) in each packet
and then forwards it to the Internet. The ZyXEL Device keeps track of the original addresses
and port numbers so incoming reply packets can have their original values restored. The
following figure illustrates this.
Figure 153 How NAT Works