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Troubleshooting

What Is NAT and Why Does It Matter?

NAT is why all your home devices share one public IP address. It's also why gaming NAT types exist. Here's how it works in plain terms.

Updated 2026

  1. 1

    The problem NAT solves

    There aren't enough public IPv4 addresses for every device on earth. NAT lets your entire household share one public IP — your router's — while each device gets a private local IP.

  2. 2

    How NAT works

    When your laptop sends traffic to Google, your router swaps your private IP (192.168.1.5) for its public IP, sends the request, then routes Google's reply back to your laptop. All of this is invisible to you.

  3. 3

    Why NAT causes gaming problems

    Online games need incoming connections from other players. NAT blocks unsolicited incoming traffic by default — which is why you get Strict or Moderate NAT type on consoles.

  4. 4

    Fixing NAT for gaming

    Port forwarding tells the router to allow incoming traffic on specific ports and send it to your console. UPnP automates this. DMZ bypasses it entirely.

  5. 5

    NAT and IPv6

    IPv6 has enough addresses for every device to have a public IP — so NAT isn't needed. As IPv6 adoption grows, gaming NAT issues will eventually disappear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is NAT the same as a firewall?
Not exactly — NAT has a firewall-like side effect (blocking unrequested inbound traffic) but it's not a security feature by design. A proper firewall is separate.
What's double NAT?
When you have two routers in sequence (e.g. ISP modem-router + your own router), each adds a layer of NAT. This worsens gaming NAT type and can break some services. Put the first router in bridge mode to fix it.