NETGEAR WGX102

Reference Manual for the 54 Mbps Wall-Plugged Wireless Range Extender WGX102
B-8 Network, Routing, Firewall, and Basics
September 2004 202-10042-01
Single IP Address Operation Using NAT
In the past, if multiple computers on a LAN needed to access the Internet simultaneously, you had
to obtain a range of IP addresses from the ISP. This type of Internet account is more costly than a
single-address account typically used by a single user with a modem, rather than a router. The
WGX102 Wall-Plugged Range Extender employs an address-sharing method called Network
Address Translation (NAT). This method allows several networked computers to share an Internet
account using only a single IP address, which may be statically or dynamically assigned by your
ISP.
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 B-3: Single IP Address Operation Using NAT
7786EA
1
92.168.0.2
1
92.168.0.3
1
92.168.0.4
1
92.168.0.5
192.168.0.1 172.21.15.105
Private IP addresses
assigned by user
Internet
IP addresses
assigned by ISP