AP Computer Science Practice Test 2026 – Complete Exam Prep

NAT stands for Network Address Translation. This is a crucial networking process that allows multiple devices on a local network to access the internet using a single public IP address. By modifying the IP address information in the headers of packets as they pass through a router or firewall, NAT helps preserve the limited number of available public IP addresses and boosts security by keeping internal IP addresses hidden from external networks.

This functionality is particularly important in home and corporate networks, where many devices need to access the internet simultaneously. NAT allows these devices to share a single IP address by translating their private IP addresses to the public IP address for outgoing traffic, and then translating the responses back to the appropriate internal private IP addresses. This enables efficient use of IP address space while also providing a layer of security.