Deploying NAT
Updated: April 30, 2010
Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2
To deploy a Network Address Translation (NAT) router running Windows Server® 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2008, complete each of the tasks in Checklist: Implementing a NAT Router Design. Before you configure the router, be sure that you review the following topics in the Routing and Remote Access Design Guide:
About NAT
Network address translation (NAT) provides a method for translating the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses of computers on one network into IPv4 addresses of computers on a different network. A NAT-enabled IP router deployed at the boundary where a private network, such as a corporate network, meets a public network, such as the Internet, allows computers on the private network to access computers on the public network by providing this translation service.
NAT technology was developed to provide a temporary solution to the IPv4 address-depletion problem. The number of available globally unique (public) IPv4 addresses is far too few to accommodate the rapidly increasing number of computers that need access to the Internet. The long-term solution, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), is not yet widely adopted. NAT technology lets computers on any network use reusable private addresses to connect to computers with globally unique public addresses on the Internet.
RRAS supports a NAT solution by allowing the optional configuration of a routing protocol component that provides network address translation. Computers on a private network can access a public network by means of a NAT-enabled router that runs RRAS. All traffic leaving, or entering, the private network must travel by way of the NAT-enabled router.