Short for Network Address Translation, NAT (RFC 1631) is an Internet standard for LAN (local area network) to use one or more IP addresses for internal traffic and a second for external. For example, a NAT can be used by home users to allow multiple computers to connect to a broadband connection. NAT is also used to hide Internet network addresses using the single NAT address.

Today, there are two different variants of NAT used. NAPT, which is short for Network Address Port Translation, and PAT, which is short for Port Address Translation.

Computer abbreviations, DHCP, Network terms, Proxy

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