NAT Basics

NAT basics, also known as network address translation is an important part of the CCENT and
CCNA certification exams. When NAT is implemented it allows a router to translate the source
IPv4 address in the packet header as it crosses the router, changing the source address in the
packet from one address to another. This allows the sending computer’s message to appear as
if it is coming from another computer’s address. When you masquerade the origin of a
computer’s IPv4 address on a network it is known as a NAT firewall.
Network address translation is a primary reason that IPv4 addressing has survived and is still in
use today. The creation of NAT along with private IPv4 address ranges like 192.168.0.0 to
192.168.255.255, 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255, and 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 has allowed
for the conservation of publicly routable IPv4 addresses. One of the results of NAT’s ability
translate public addresses at the router to private IPv4 addresses is that the advent of IPv6
addressing has essentially been delayed.
Configuring NAT
For the CCENT and the CCNA certifications you need to know how NAT works and how
to configure it on a Cisco router. In the following Packet Tracer exercise and
accompanying video tutorials, I demonstrate four different ways of configuring NAT.
 Static NAT translation

 Port forwarding static NAT translation
 NAT overload translation
 Dynamic NAT translation using a NAT Pool
Overview
Routing Loops are a risk in networks that utilize an older dynamic routing protocol like
RIP. A routing loop is a scenario where data, instead of being routed to its correct
destination, is sent from router to router endlessly. This scenario can be caused by
routers not receiving updated routing information quickly enough, and as a result,
forwarding packets incorrectly and propagating routing information to neighbor routers
incorrectly. When every router in the system has the correct routing information the
network is said to be converged. Therefore, it is desirable to use a routing protocol that
can converge a network quickly and prevent routing loops.
Typically distance vector routing protocols like RIPv1, RIPv2 and IGRP, do not
converge networks as quickly as link state routing protocols like OSPF and ISIS, with
the EIGRP routing protocol being the exception.
Count-to-inifinity is a RIP routing loop scenario whereby the routes in the routing tables
keep increasing their hop-count metric. This is caused by incorrect routing information
being propagated on the network.
Distance Vector routing protocols have been designed and improved over the years to
minimize the possibility of routing loops. RIP uses the following methods and rules to
avoid routing loops and count-to-infinity: split horizon, hold down timers, route
poisoning, poison reverse, and TTL values.
Video Tutorial
Related
Routers and Routing IntroOctober 17, 2011In “CCNA 2”

EIGRPNovember 21, 2011In “CCNA 3”
RIPv1November 3, 2011In “CCNA 2”
Author: Dan
Dan teaches computer networking and security classes at Central Oregon Community College. View all
posts by Dan
Overview
RIP or the Routing Information Protocol was standardized in RFC1058 in 1988. It was
developed from earlier routing protocols developed at Xerox. RIP has three major
versions RIPv1 (1988), RIPv2 (RFC2453 1998), and RIPng (RFC2080 1997). RIP
version 2 added support for VLSM and CIDR and version ng or next generation adds
support for IPv6.
RIPv1 Characteristics
1. Classful routing – RIP is a classful routing protocol, it does not send or receive subnet
masks, it assumes classful subnet masks
2. Periodic updates – RIP broadcasts routing updates every 30 seconds. It broadcasts

the entire routing table in the update.
3. Triggered updates – RIP also broadcasts updates when there is a change in the
topology, like a network going up or down.
4. Metric – RIP’s metric is hop count. A hop is a router, so a RIP route with metric of 2
means the network is two routers away. RIP’s maximum distance is 15 hops. 16 hops is
infinity and is used to mark a route as dead. A router that receives a packet then
removed from the routing table.
5. Administrative Distance – RIP’s administrative distance is 120. AD ranks the

trustworthiness, or reliability of the route, the lower the administrative distance the better
the route.
6. Hold Down Timer – RIP uses a hold down timer of 180 seconds so that it does not
propagate bad routes and does not have a count-to-infinity routing loop. Route is
flushed at 240 seconds
7. Load Balancing – Default load balancing across 4 equal cost routes. Can go up to 6
routes.
8. Count to infinity – is prevented by hold down timers and by RIPs maximum metric of
15 hops.
9. Routing Loops – are prevented by: Hold Down Timer, Split Horizon Rule, Route
Poisoning, Route Poisoning with Poison Reverse, as well as TTL.
10. Automatic Route Summarization. RIP automatically summarizes routes into classful
network ranges because it will not allow non-classful network configuration or the
propagation of non-classful subnet masks. It can only advertise classful networks. This
can cause problems if subnetted networks are configured on multiple router interfaces
in a discontiguous manner (see the video tutorials below for a demonstration).
11. Transport Layer – RIP sends out updates on UDP port 520
IOS CLI commands to use with RIP

router(config)#router rip //to activate RIP
router(config-router)#network <network ip address> //to add a
participating network and interface
router(config-router)#passive-interface <interface type>
<interface number> //to stop RIP from sending updates out of an
interface
router#show running-config //to verify your configuration
router#show ip route //to verify your routing table
router#show ip protocols //to verify your RIP configuration
router#copy running-config startup-config //to save your
configuration
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NAT basics, also known as network address translation is an important part of the CCENT and

 Static NAT translation

Routers and Routing IntroOctober 17, 2011In “CCNA 2”

2. Periodic updates – RIP broadcasts routing updates every 30 seconds. It broadcasts

5. Administrative Distance – RIP’s administrative distance is 120. AD ranks the

IOS CLI commands to use with RIP

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