Netgear FWG114P v2 User Manual

Page of 140
Reference Manual for the ProSafe Wireless 802.11g  Firewall/Print Server Model FWG114P
B-8
Networks, Routing, and Firewall Basics
March 2004, 202-10027-01
The router accomplishes this address sharing by translating the internal LAN IP addresses to a 
single address that is globally unique on the Internet. The internal LAN IP addresses can be either 
private addresses or registered addresses. For more information about IP address translation, refer 
to RFC 1631, The IP Network Address Translator (NAT).
The following figure illustrates a single IP address operation.
 
Figure 11-3:  Single IP Address Operation Using NAT
This scheme offers the additional benefit of firewall-like protection because the internal LAN 
addresses are not available to the Internet through the translated connection. All incoming 
inquiries are filtered out by the router. This filtering can prevent intruders from probing your 
system. However, using port forwarding, you can allow one PC (for example, a Web server) on 
your local network to be accessible to outside users.
192.168.0.2
192.168.0.3
192.168.0.4
192.168.0.5
192.168.0.1
172.21.15.105
Private IP addresses
assigned by user
Internet
IP addresses
assigned by ISP