> I've generally been of the opinion that NAT is a very workable solution
> for the small office and home network, and questionable for larger
> networks. Sounds like you're saying the same.
The New York City Board of Education is using NATs as a security
measure to keep their 1000+ schools off of the public network.
Teachers are reporting that the networks are unusable because of them.
Many of the educational benefits that the schools want to gain from
being connected to the internet are unaccessible because of the
limitations NATs place on the types of connections that may be made
(and accepted.)
The NYC BOE does not have the money or staff to figure out how to
properly configure and maintain these devices. But they were put in
place most likely because they were presented to the high level admins
as an easy way of securing the network.
The teachers (as consumers of the technology) have chosen not to use
the Internet in the classroom experience because they can't get the
same access from the classroom that they are able to receive from AOL
at home.
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The use of NATs in home or small office environment must be voluntary
by the end user. It is somewhat scary that an end user must now know
enough about NATs to ask their proposed ISP whether or not a NAT is
going to be used to allocate them an IP address. And if so, be able
to instruct the ISP how it should be configured for them. I forsee a
day when the use of NATs and the failure by ISPs to disclose their use
will result in lawsuits by Ralph Nadar and the Attorney General's
offices of several states for fraudulant advertising.
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NATs are workable solutions for the home environment if and only if
they are implemented by knowledgeable people or are used by
individuals whose range of Internet access is severely limited.
Jeffrey Altman * Sr.Software Designer * Kermit-95 for Win32 and OS/2
The Kermit Project * Columbia University
612 West 115th St #716 * New York, NY * 10025
http://www.kermit-project.org/k95.html * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
