NATtyyppi

NATtyyppi is a term used in telecommunications and networking to describe the type of Network Address Translation (NAT) being employed. NAT is a method used by routers and firewalls to rewrite IP addresses and port numbers in packet headers. This is often done to allow multiple devices on a private network to share a single public IP address, conserving public IP address space and enhancing security.

There are several primary NATtyyppi configurations. Static NAT is a one-to-one mapping between a private IP address and a public IP address. This is useful for servers that need to be consistently accessible from the internet. Dynamic NAT is a pool of public IP addresses that are dynamically assigned to private IP addresses as needed. This is more efficient for managing a limited number of public IPs for a larger group of internal devices.

Port Address Translation (PAT), often referred to as NAT Overload, is the most common form of NATtyyppi. It allows many private IP addresses to share a single public IP address by using different port numbers to distinguish between the connections. This is the typical configuration found in home routers. Other, less common types include many-to-many NAT and bidirectional NAT, which offer more complex mapping scenarios. The choice of NATtyyppi depends on the specific network requirements, security policies, and the number of available IP addresses.