There are 100 million hosts and 350 million users on the Internet, with the number doubling every year. However, there are only 3.3 billion available IP addresses, so network address translation (NAT) is used to allow multiple computers to share a single IP address. NAT was developed by Cisco and is used by most companies connected to the internet. IPv6 is currently being developed but won’t be available for several years.
At present, it is estimated that there are approximately 100 million hosts and 350 million users actively using the Internet. This number doubles every year. An Internet Protocol (IP) address is required for computers to communicate with other computers or web servers. IP works by finding out exactly where your computer is and sending information to you.
The actual number of available IP addresses is approximately 3.3 billion. With the tremendous growth of the Internet, there simply aren’t enough addresses available. This is where network address translation (NAT) comes into play. It allows a single device to act as an intermediary between the Internet and a local network. This effectively means that a single IP address can be used for an entire group of computers.
NAT was developed by Cisco. It is used by a device, such as a computer or firewall, that sits between an internal network and the outside world of networks. NAT works in many different ways. There is static NAT, which routes an unregistered IP address to a registered IP address. This is very useful when one computer needs to access another computer from outside the network.
There’s also dynamic NAT, which routes unregistered IP addresses to registered ones from a pool of registered IP addresses. NAT can also use overloading, whereby multiple unregistered IP addresses are routed to a single address using various ports. Each computer on the private network uses the same address but receives a different port number. Basically, the port is an extension of the IP address.
Most companies that have computers connected to the Internet use NAT. For example, a university may have hundreds of computers installed for both staff and students. With the advent of Internet cafes and online gaming establishments, NAT is needed more than ever. Think of NAT as the first port of call when another computer is trying to access yours over the internet. This computer “asks” NAT to be forwarded to you instead of contacting you directly.
A system is currently under development that is redrawing IP addresses. Called IPv6, it won’t be available for several years because the whole structure of the Internet will have to be changed. At the moment, therefore, NAT is the best and most secure method we have for allowing computers to talk to each other.
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