What Is Multi-Nat; When Do I Need Multi-Nat - ZyXEL Communications P-2602HWL-D1A Support Notes

Prestige 2602HWL-DxA Support Notes
Cable modems on the same node share bandwidth, which means that congestion is created when too many
people are on simultaneously. One user downloading large graphic or video files can use a significant portion of
shared bandwidth, slowing down access for other users in the same neighborhood.
Most independent Internet Service Providers today connect to the Internet using a single 1.5 Mbps "T1"
telephone line. All of their subscribers share that 1.5 Mbps pipeline. Cable head-ends connecting to the Internet
backbone using a T1 limit their subscribers to an absolute maximum of 1.5 Mbps.
To create the appearance of faster network access, service companies plan to store or "cache" frequently
requested web sites and Usenet newsgroups on a server at their head-end. Storing data locally will remove some
of the bottleneck at the backbone connection.
How fast can they go? In a perfect world (or lab) they can receive data at speeds up to 30 Mbps. In the real
world, with cost conscious cable companies running the systems, the speed will probably fall to about 1.5
Mbps.

What is Multi-NAT?

NAT (Network Address Translation-NAT RFC 1631) is the translation of an Internet Protocol address used
within one network to a different IP address known within another network. One network is designated the
inside outside
network and the other is the . Typically, a company maps its local inside network addresses to one
or more global outside IP addresses and "unmaps" the global IP addresses on incoming packets back into local
IP addresses. The IP addresses for the NAT can be either fixed or dynamically assigned by the ISP. In addition,
you can designate servers, e.g., a web server and a telnet server, on your local network and make them
accessible to the outside world. If you do not define any servers, NAT offers the additional benefit of firewall
protection. In such case, all incoming connections to your network will be filtered out by the Prestige, thus
preventing intruders from probing your network.
The SUA feature that the Prestige supports previously operates by mapping the private IP addresses to a global
IP address. It is only one subset of the NAT. The Prestige with ZyNOS V3.00 supports the most of the features
of the NAT based on RFC 1631, and we call this feature as 'Multi-NAT'. For more information on IP address
The IP Network Address Translator (NAT)
translation, please refer to RFC 1631, .

When do I need Multi-NAT?

a. Make local server accessible from outside Internet
When NAT is enabled the local computers are not accessible from outside. You can use Multi-NAT to make an
internal server accessible from outside.
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