DNAT

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Destination network address translation, or DNAT, is a kind of network address translation. In DNAT, technique of transparently changing the destination IP address of an en-route packet to another IP address, and changing it back on the reply to this packet. Any router situated between two endpoints can perform this transformation of the packet, but the packet must be altered upon both entry to the network and upon exit from the network.

DNAT is commonly used to publish a service from an internal network to a publicly accessible IP.

[edit] DNAT on Linux

To enable DNAT on Linux, at least one iptables command is required. The connection tracking mechanism of netfilter will ensure that subsequent packets exchanged in either direction (which can be identified as part of the existing DNAT connection) are also transformed.

[edit] See also

  • SNAT, where the source address is changed, not the destination address
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