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Network+ Study Guide (N10-003)

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NAT/ICS


NAT stands for Network Address Translation and is a commonly used IP translation and mapping technology. Using a device (such as a router) or piece of software that implements NAT allows an entire home or office network to share a single internet connection over a single IP address. A single cable modem, DSL modem, or even 56k modem could connect all the computers to the internet simultaneously. Additionally, NAT keeps your home network fairly secure from hackers. NAT is built in to the most common Internet Connection Sharing technologies around. Microsoft's implementation of NAT is called Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and is supported by Windows 98SE and Windows 2000. ICS is a NAT based routing application, designed to share an Internet connection among multiple computers connected via a LAN. ICS can handle both dial-up and broadband based Internet connections. ICS can handle networks with clients running any operating system, as long as the OS supports the TCP/IP protocol. The clients can have their TCP/IP information assigned manually or they can run as DHCP clients, obtaining their TCP/IP settings from ICS' built-in DHCP server.