Last Updated : 08 Feb, 2023
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NAT stands for Network Address Translation. NAT is a technique used to connect networks together, it is typically used when a device on a private network wants to communicate with a device on a public network, such as the internet. NAT operates on a router, which is responsible for replacing the private IP addresses of devices in a local network with a single public IP address, this allows multiple devices to share a single internet connection while keeping their private IP addresses hidden.
NAT is a way to assign multiple devices on a private network to a single public IP address, this is important because there are a limited number of IP addresses available on the internet, and NAT allows organizations to share a single IP address among multiple devices, saving IP addresses and preserving them for future use.
NAT can also be used for security reasons, by keeping the internal IP addresses hidden from the public internet. NAT can be configured in different ways, some of the most common uses are for port forwarding, which allows remote access to devices on a private network, for creating virtual private networks (VPNs), and for load balancing, which distributes network traffic among multiple devices.
DNS (Domain Name System) is a service that facilitates the association of domain names with their corresponding IP addresses. It eliminates the need for users to remember numerical IP addresses by translating domain names into IP addresses. When a user types a domain name into their browser, the browser sends a request to the DNS server which then resolves the domain name to the corresponding IP address that the website is hosted on. The DNS servers are organized in a hierarchical manner, with the root servers at the top, and the individual domains branching out from there.
Difference between Network Address Translation (NAT) and Domain Name System (DNS)
| NAT (Network Address Translation) | DNS (Domain Name System) |
| Maps private IP addresses to public IP addresses, allowing devices in a local network to access the internet by sharing a single public IP address. | Translates human-friendly domain names, such as www.example.com, into the IP addresses that computers use to locate and communicate with each other. |
| Typically performed by a router or firewall that connects a local network to the internet | Operates using a distributed system of servers that work together to resolve domain names to IP addresses. |
| Commonly used in home networks to conserve IP addresses and improve security. | Essential for the internet as it allows users to remember domain names rather than IP addresses. |
| NAT is a technique used for IP addressing. | DNS is a service used for domain name resolution |
| It is used to assign multiple devices on a private network to a single public IP address. | It is used to translate domain names into IP addresses, so that computers can locate and communicate with each other. |
| It masks the internal IP addresses from the public network. | It provide the mapping of human-friendly domain names to the IP addresses that computers use to locate and communicate with each other. |
| It can also be used for security reasons, by keeping the internal IP addresses hidden from the public internet. | It is hierarchical and decentralized, meaning it’s organized in a tree-like structure, with the “root” of the tree at the top, and the individual domains branching out from there. |
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