Secure Network Address Translation

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What Does Secure Network Address Translation Mean?

Secure network address translation (SecureNA or SNAT) is a network address translation (NAT) technique that enables private network security by providing a public Internet Protocol (IP) address to remote users/systems. It allows multiple computers that are connected within a private local area network (LAN) to use a single IP address to access the Internet.

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Techopedia Explains Secure Network Address Translation

Secure NAT is implemented in routers and modems that provide Internet connectivity to multiple users in a LAN or small network.

In a SNAT-based network environment, all devices connect to the local SNAT device/router/modem, but each computer has a distinct and unique IP address. The SNAT-configured router sends its request by replacing the source IP address with its IP address. When the destination device receives the packet from the local device, it sees the SNAT-configured source IP address – not the device’s actual IP address. This secures the internal network from exposure to external networks while allowing the same IP address to be used by multiple devices.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.