Is the router "NAT" ("Network Address Translation") feature enabled?

  When the router serves up DHCP addresses, they had better come from one of
the private ranges reserved under RFC 1918 for this purpose.  The problem is
that that means that there are probably THOUSANDS of machines using that
same address, all over the globe.  When you send a ping beyond the gateway,
it has no way to find its way home.
  The "WAN" address of the router is a *public* address, globally unique.
Turning on NAT tells the router "Use your public address for all traffic,
and translate back to private addresses when you get an answer".

David Gillett


On 1 Jun 2003, at 14:26, Will Stephenson wrote:

> I have a situation where a friend has two computers (Dell desktop and
> Compaq laptop) and a Linksys router. The router is connected to the
> internet through a cable modem (Adelphia). Both computers are running
> Win XP Home edition. The router acts as the DHCP server, though I have
> tried it with DHCP disabled as well. The computers can see each other
> and interact as expected (files can be transferred, etc). The router can
> see the internet (at least the WAN side has an IP assigned to it, and
> can see the Adelphia gateway and the DNS servers).
>
> Problem: the computers are not able to access the internet.
>
> Other information:
> 1. I can ping the Adelphia gateway, but not the Adelphia DNS servers.
> 2. In TCP/IP properties in Windows, all addresses are server assigned
> (IP, DNS, etc.).
> 3. The router has a clients table in the DHCP tab: it is empty. I have a
> very similar setup at home (two computers, Linksys router) and the
> clients table is populated with the two computers.
> 4. All firewalls in both computers are disabled.
> 5. There is no special authentication demanded in network properties -
> all have been turned off.
> 6. I have tried two routers - the second a newer, but essentially the
> same, Linksys.
> 7. The setup worked a few days ago (using assigned addresses for
> everything - DHCP turned off in the router). When it went down ("no new
> hardware or software had been added") the people called Adelphia and got
> the internet connection to work off of one computer through Ethernet
> directly to the modem. So all the hardware is working.
>
> I reset everything up a number of times before stopping. I have no idea
> why the internet is unreachable through the router. Everything *seems*
> right - except the missing entries in the DHCP clients table. But I see
> no reason why that is empty. I would love to know what I am missing.
>
> Thank you for reading and thinking about this. It is much appreciated!
>
> Best, Will Stephenson
>
> Will Stephenson
> Acadia Technologies Inc.
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
>
> There are as many paths to God as there are people to walk them.
>
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