Re: NAT vs translation vs routing in Gauntlet firewall

[Dave Piscitello <dave () corecom com>]

All NAT devices *forward* IP packets. Most firewalls support some variant 
of NAT that hides the IP networks assigned to the trusted/protected network 
interface
They do this by statically mapping an unique private (e.g., RFC 1918 
compliant) IP address to individual public IP addresses (static NAT) or by 
dynamically mapping an entire set of private addresses to the single public 
IP address assigned to the public/external/Internet-facing network 
interface of the Firewall (commonly NATP).

I'm perhaps an old fart and purist, but I'd distinguish this kind of 
activity from (adaptive) routing. Firewalls commonly make forwarding 
choices based on static routing tables. Many firewalls don't (currently) 
support dynamic routing (e.g., RIP, OSPF, BGP). I say "currently" because 
the vendors in the high end (GigE capable) firewalls seem to be intent on 
supporting BGP.

At 07:22 PM 6/13/2002 -0400, Mordechai T Abzug wrote:
> Normally, NAT and NAT-P imply routing -- you can't do a regular NAT
> unless you're also routing.  All NAT devices are routers, but not all
> routers are NAT devices.


David M. Piscitello
Core Competence, Inc. &
3 Myrtle Bank Lane
Hilton Head, SC 29926
dave () corecom com
843.689.5595
www.corecom.com
hhi.corecom.com/~yodave/


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