The NAT software on your router keeps track of which internal devices have made what outbound network requests to which external servers, and sorts out the inbound replies so that they get back to the right place.īut NAT doesn’t work automatically for inbound traffic. The “trick” used for internet connection sharing is called NAT, short for Network Address Translation, and it’s a way to allow a single home router to divide up your internet connection automatically between any number of devices. That means your ISP only needs to hand out one IP number per household, rather than one IP number per device. …but the truth is that the main reason for having a home router is to support multiple devices through connection sharing. Indeed, it’s tempting to assume that home routers came about specifically to address the security risks inherent in connecting laptops and other home devices straight onto the internet… In recent years, however, we’ve got used to the idea that home computers don’t get plugged directly onto the internet – they typically connect through a router instead, and it’s the router that’s plugged into the internet connection. Other users out there could, literally and figuratively, reach out and probe your computer directly. If you ever used dial-up networking to access the internet, you probably remember it mostly for being cumbersome and slow.īut it was also astonishingly insecure, because your computer – which was probably running Windows 95, Windows 3, or even good old DOS – ended up with a public-facing IP number, connected straight onto to the internet.
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