PAT
Port Address Translation
NAT variant that maps many private hosts to one public IP using ports.
Port Address Translation is a NAT variant that maps many internal private hosts to a single public IP address by tracking unique source ports, which is how most home and small office networks share one address. It conserves scarce public IPv4 addresses and incidentally hides internal addressing from the outside. PAT is not a true security control, since stateful inspection rather than translation provides protection, but it does obscure internal topology. It is also called NAT overload, and inbound services typically require explicit port forwarding.
Port Address Translation: many private IPs share one public IP, separated by port (NAT overload).
Looking PAT up is step one. Getting tested on it is step two.
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