Grokking NAT: Linux's Clever Workaround for IPv4 Exhaustion

Imagine your home Wi-Fi network: all devices share the same public IP address. This is thanks to Network Address Translation (NAT). With limited IPv4 addresses, NAT cleverly maps private IPs to a single public IP on your router, letting multiple devices share a single public IP. This article dives into NAT's workings, exploring different types (Full Cone, Restricted Cone, Symmetric NAT) and its Linux implementation (using nftables), illustrated with a Docker example. While NAT temporarily solves IPv4 exhaustion, it introduces limitations like breaking end-to-end connectivity and complicating encryption. Ultimately, widespread IPv6 adoption is the true solution.