This mechanism makes the traffic from the private network appear to be coming from a single valid public internet address, which effectively hides the private addresses from the internet. If you inspect the output of ip addr or ipconfig/all commands, then you will find that your devices are using private range addresses, which would have been assigned to them by your DHCP server or by your router through DHCP address dynamic assignment.

The private address ranges that are usually assigned are as follows:

• 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
• 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
• 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

The idea is simple: make computer networks use a range of private IP addresses and connect to the internet using a single public IP address. Thanks to this patch, large companies will only be able to use one public IP address instead of as many public addresses as the number of machines there are in that company. It is also used to connect home networks to the internet.

There are two types of operations with NAT:

• Static: A private IP address is always translated into the same public IP address. This mode of operation would allow a host within the network to be visible from the internet.
• Dynamic: The router is assigned several public IP addresses so that each private IP address is mapped using one of the public IP addresses that the router has assigned. This is done so that each private IP address corresponds to at least one public IP address.

Each time a host requires an internet connection, the router will assign a public IP address that is not being used. This time, security is increased because it makes it difficult for an external host to enter the network since public IP addresses are constantly changing.