DNAT
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Destination Network Address Translation
Network address translation (NAT) is a technique of transparently mapping an IP address or range to another IP address or range. Any routing device situated between two endpoints can perform this transformation of the packet.
Network designers must however take one key element under consideration when laying out a network with NAT in mind. The router(s) performing NAT must have an opportunity to rewrite the packet upon entry to the network and upon exit from the network
Destination NAT is commonly used to publish a service from an internal network to a publicly accessible IP.
To enable DNAT on Linux, at least one iptables command is required. The connection tracking mechanism of netfilter will ensure that subsequent packets exchanged in either direction (which can be identified as part of the existing DNAT connection) are also transformed.
