What the heck is NAT?

[Jason]

NAT is designed for IP address simplification and conservation, as it enables private IP inter-networks that use non-registered IP addresses to connect to the Internet. NAT operates on a router, usually connecting two networks together, and translates the private (not globally unique) addresses in the internal network into legal addresses before packets are forwarded onto another network. As part of this functionality, NAT can be configured to advertise only one address for the entire network to the outside world. This provides additional security, effectively hiding the entire internal network from the world behind that address. NAT has the dual functionality of security and address conservation, and is typically implemented in remote access environments. NAT is an acronym for Network Address Translation