Windows 8 In Depth

Using NAT or Internet Connection Sharing

By either name, Network Address Translation (NAT) has two big security benefits. First, it can be used to hide an entire network behind one IP address. Then, while it transparently passes connections from you out to the Internet, it rejects all incoming connection attempts except those that you explicitly direct to waiting servers inside your LAN. Packet filtering isn’t absolutely necessary with NAT, although it can’t hurt to add it.

To learn more about NAT, see “NAT and Internet Connection Sharing,” p. 418.

Caution

Microsoft’s Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) blocks incoming access to other computers ...