Windows 8 In Depth

NAT and Internet Connection Sharing

Microsoft’s Internet Connection Sharing system and the popular devices called residential gateways, connection-sharing routers, or wireless routers use NAT to establish all Internet connections using one public IP address. The computer or device running the NAT service mediates all connections between computers on your LAN and the Internet (see Figure 19.2).

Figure 19.2. A NAT device or program carries out all Internet communications using one IP address. NAT keeps track of outgoing data from your LAN to determine where to send responses from the outside.

NAT works a lot like mail delivery to a large commercial ...