Why NAT:
because the World
ran out of IPv4
addresses in Feb 2010?
Navigating the Digital Landscape: Understanding the Widespread Adoption of NAT in Organizational Networks | Article
Bridging the Digital Divide: NAT’s Silent Role in Uniting Networks Across the Globe
The world ran out of IPv4 addresses in February 2010. Therefore only two options are remaining:
- Deploy or migrate to IPv6 addresses. People are reluctant, but they must do that sooner rather than later.
- Hide their current network infrastructure behind NAT. We will discuss the second option in this article: what are the Pros and Cons of NAT?
NAT can be used in different scenarios. Sometimes, it protects portions of your network from the Internet and saves the IPv4 address space. In smaller networks, it is also used to share a single Internet connection with a single routable IP allocated.
‘Peering Behind the Curtain: Discovering the Wizardry of NAT’s Connectivity Enhancements’
However, using NAT has some advantages as well as some disadvantages.
NAT can be used with routable (public) IP addresses and private (RFC 1918) IP addresses. However, the chance you’ll use a public IP address in your NAT application is slight. Since that IP is routable on the Internet, the only case when you’ll want to use NAT is if you’re going to “hide” the source IP address of your equipment/computer and use the router’s address instead when he requests a remote device.
In most cases, we use NAT when you don’t have enough public IPs assigned for your network and when you want to protect some hosts on your system from requests originating from the Internet. This is called NAT Overload.
Because there are not too many IPs left in the IPv4 address space, you may not and should not get as many IP addresses as needed to allocate at least one IP address for each host/device in your network. Suppose every device soon has its public IP address. In that case, we will run out of IP addresses, and new tools will not be able to benefit from Internet connectivity until one device is disconnected. Authorities worldwide are encouraging service providers and companies that are not using all their allocated addresses to return them so those IP addresses can be reused by someone who needs them.
In some other cases, you may need to have private IP addresses and public IP addresses assigned to the hosts of your network, and you need those hosts to have an “extra layer” of security. In this case, you can do a 1:1 NAT using static or dynamic NAT. For example, you have some in-house developed application, and you need to be sure that no one from the Internet will be able to access that application. You can use private IP addresses for your internal network, and the router connected to your service provider must do either static NAT and map every private IP address to a public one or dynamic NAT using a pool of available public IP addresses.
Why are we using Network Address Translation? NAT can be used in different scenarios, sometimes to protect portions of your network from the Internet, sometimes to save the IPv4 address space, and in smaller networks, it is also used to share a single Internet connection with a single routable IP allocated
Using NAT has some benefits:
- You help conserve the IPv4 address space (when you use NAT Overload).
- Implementing multiple pools, backup pools, and load-balancing pools increases the flexibility and reliability of connections to the public network.
- You have a consistent network addressing scheme. If you use the public IP address, you’ll first get an address space assigned to you. As your network grows, you’ll have to buy more, and when you buy more, the chance of getting IP addresses from the same IP address class is minimal or even zero.
- You get an extra layer of network security. Hosts inside a NAT network are not reachable by hosts on other networks unless you want to.
However, NAT has some drawbacks too:
- When hosts inside your network request a remote site, the remote site will see the connection as coming from your NAT router. Some hosts implement a level of security regarding how many connections to accept from another host, and they do not respond if the defined number of requests has been reached. This can degrade your network’s performance.
- Because many applications and protocols depend on end-to-end functionality, your network may be unable to use some of them. As we already told you, hosts inside a NAT network are not reachable by hosts in other networks.
- End-to-end IP traceability is also lost. If you need to troubleshoot your network from a remote site, it will be more difficult and sometimes even impossible.
- Using tunnelling protocols, such as IPsec, can be more complicated because NAT modifies values in the headers that interfere with integrity checks done by IPsec and other tunnelling protocols. However, newer routers have special features to support tunnelling protocols.
- Services that require TCP or UDP connection initiation from the outside can also be affected and sometimes not usable at all.
‘NAT: The Digital Shapeshifter Crafting Invisible Paths Across Network Domains’
Is IPSec allowed through NAT?
Yes, IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) can work through NAT (Network Address Translation), but it requires specific configurations to do so. NAT typically translates IP addresses and port numbers of outgoing packets, which can interfere with the encrypted data and cause issues for IPSec. However, NAT traversal mechanisms such as NAT-T (NAT Traversal) can be employed to ensure that IPSec traffic can pass through NAT devices without disruption. NAT-T encapsulates IPSec packets within UDP packets, allowing them to traverse NAT devices successfully. Therefore, IPSec can operate through NAT environments with proper configuration and support for NAT traversal.
Let’s simplify NAT Traversal with an analogy:
Imagine you’re sending secret messages to your friend through a mailbox, but a security guard (NAT device) checks every letter before it goes out. Now, your friend lives in a different town, and a series of tunnels (the internet) connect your town to theirs. But the security guard doesn’t like that your messages are in fancy envelopes (IPSec), so he tries to open them up and read them.
NAT Traversal is like putting your secret messages inside a larger envelope (UDP packet) that the security guard is okay with. You can still send your fancy envelopes (IPSec-encrypted packets), but now they’re hidden inside the larger envelope. So, when the security guard sees the big envelope, he lets it pass through the tunnels without trying to open it up. Once it reaches your friend’s town, they can take out the fancy envelope from the big one and read your secret message without any problems.
In this analogy:
- Your secret messages represent the data you want to send securely.
- The security guard represents the NAT device, which checks and modifies packets.
- The tunnels represent the internet, where data travels between networks.
- The big envelope represents the UDP packet, which encapsulates your encrypted data.
- Taking out the fancy envelope represents unpacking the UDP packet to access the IPSec-encrypted data.
So, NAT Traversal helps your encrypted data (IPSec) pass through NAT devices by hiding it inside packets that NAT devices are okay with. This allows your secure communication to reach its destination without being interfered with.
What drives us at v500 Systems?
We get an ‘enormous kick’ by solving problems that many can’t. Our core objective is to add value
‘Navigating the Digital Landscape: How NAT Pioneers Connectivity in an Ever-Changing World’
‘As data flows through the veins of networks, NAT stands as the translator, ensuring seamless communication across diverse domains’
— Cognitions Connected
NAT (Network Address Translation) | NAT Importance in Networks | NAT Usage and Significance | Understanding NAT in Data Networks | How NAT Works in Networking | NAT Advantages and Benefits | NAT Role in Connectivity | Explaining NAT Concepts | NAT Implementation in Networks | NAT Impact on Network Communications
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