NAT is like package delivery IRL. If you’re a server and send a package to a client without NAT, that’s like sending a delivery boy to deliver pizza, goes straight from source to destination.

But with NAT it’s like ordering a package online. It first will be delivered to a distribution center, and then a delivery warehouse in your area, and then the courier delivers packages to all people on his route.

It’s way more complex and you now have a whole bunch of points of failure.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 days ago (11 children)

That's a great analogy for carrier grade nat.

For regular nat it's like the pizza is able to get all the way to your house but then has no idea who to go to so somebody has to answer the door and then take the pizza from the door to the person who ordered it themselves.

And IPv6 is like the pizza delivery guy just walks right into the house up the steps into your bedroom and hands you the pizza directly.

The best part is they each have the same exact problems you'd have in real life.

[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Let me one up this. IPv4 NAT is like the pizza guy has to deliver to you, but you live in a gated community with a strict no visitors policy, which does not allow you to even mention what unit you're in, and none of the addresses in the community are registered with the post office or on Google Maps either. Instead, you tell the guardhouse you want to order, and they order the pizza for you. The pizza guy delivers to the guardhouse, and the guardhouse delivers the pizza to you.

IPv6 (with firewalling) is like a normal gated community, you order the pizza and include the unit number, and the delivery driver can deliver your pizza directly, as long as the guardhouse approves.

The difference is, with NAT, the guardhouse has to both guard (firewall) and route (keep track of all deliveries, and deliver) your packages, where with IPv6, the guardhouse (firewall) only has to guard (firewall) the packages.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

i kinda love that this explanation is so much more complex not because it adds nothing but precisely because it adds a lot of realism: NAT is actually just far more complexity and processing

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

Sounds good to me

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