!!! Overview
[{$pagename}] ([NAT]) is a method of remapping one [IP Address] space into another by modifying [network address] information in [Internet Protocol] ([IP]) [datagram] [packet] headers while they are in transit across a [network traffic] [routing] [device].

[{$pagename}] was originally used for ease of rerouting traffic in [IP] networks without readdressing every host. In more advanced [{$pagename}] implementations featuring [IP Masquerading], it has become a popular and essential tool in conserving global address space allocations in face of [IPv4] address exhaustion by sharing one Internet-routable [IP Address] of a [{$pagename}] [gateway] for an entire [Private Network|Private-Use Networks].

IP Masquerading is a technique that hides an entire [IP Address] space, usually consisting of private IP addresses, behind a single IP address in another, usually public address space. The address that has to be hidden is changed into a single (public) IP address as "new" source address of the outgoing IP packet so it appears as originating not from the hidden host but from the routing device itself. Because of the popularity of this technique to conserve IPv4 address space, the term NAT has become virtually synonymous with IP masquerading.

As [{$pagename}] modifies the [IP Address] information in packets, it has serious consequences on the quality of [Internet] connectivity and requires careful attention to the details of its implementation. [{$pagename}] implementations vary widely in their specific behavior in various addressing cases and their effect on network traffic. The specifics of [{$pagename}] behavior is not commonly documented by vendors of equipment containing implementations.

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