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Re: Why people by NATs

2004-11-22 13:13:48
Peter Ford <peterf(_at_)exchange(_dot_)microsoft(_dot_)com>:
I do vehemently agree with your last paragraph.  In some sense, you are
saying that NAT is an intrinsic part of the nominal "residential
gateway" (could be expanded for soho and small/medium business).

Indeed.  I think this is true.  Several people on this list have tried to tell
me that I don't really want the IP address space on my local net to be 
decoupled from the server address.  

They are wrong.  I want to be able to change ISPs by fixing *one* IP
address in *one* place, and I want to control the mapping from global
IP addresses to local ones.  This desire has nothing to do with IPv4
vs. IPv6 and everything to do with wanting to be able to make only
small, conservative changes in my network configuration rather than
having to completely disrupt it.

Once again, I don't think my situation is unique.  I only have five machines
on my net -- my desktop box, my wife's desktop box, my laptop by WiFi, an
Apple PowerMac we watch streaming video on, and the mail/web server downstairs.
For somebody administering a network of 100 machines, the hassle cost of
IP renumbering would be twenty times larger.  Given this, how could
anyone wonder why NAT is popular?
-- 
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>

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