NAT server how to

[golovko]

does anyone know a good website that explains how a nat server works in detail and how to set it up, or anyone out there that could explain it to me? any help is appreciated

[phreenet]

When in doubht grab an RFC!!!!

Clickage! (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1631.html)

[phreenet]

Or if you want the less technical answer.

NAT, Network Address Translation, is a tool used by networks that only have one IP address (ie. Dialup, Cable, DSL) or only want one IP address advailable to the outside world. Basically a NAT service will keep track of your TCP / UDP connections, so when you send data to go out to the internet it will be using the address of the machine that is directly connected, and all request will look like they are orgininating from that one computer. So if you have 1,000 machines and only one of them is acting as a NAT Gateway then every single machine's internet request will look like its coming from that gateway. Furthermore it helps you conceal the layout and size of your network. You can mask a massive network behind a NAT Gateway, and a passer-by (ie. IP scanner) will only see one machine. NAT is much better than Proxy services because there is less configuring on the host and client side of things, and all your games will work too!

You can run NAT on just about every O/S known to man, Linux, Windows2000, Unix, Macintrash, you name it. Some really common and easy to setup Linux variants, IP Masquerading, only involve a couple of commands using 'ipchains', you can read the man pages for details. Windows is only a couple of clicks. If you have a spare machine laying around, old, beatin, as long as it has a floppy and some RAM, you can use a free and easy method of make a gateway by using software from LRP (Linux Router Project) (http://www.linuxrouter.org/), or from Freesco (Free replacement for commerical routers) (http://www.freesco.org/).

Have Fun.