A Network Address Translation (NAT) server does what?

A Network Address Translation (NAT) server plays a critical role in allowing devices on a local network, each with private IP addresses, to communicate with the internet. This is accomplished through the process of mapping private addresses to a single public IP address, or a range of public IP addresses, as data packets leave the local network. When a device on the internal network initiates a connection to an external server, the NAT server modifies the outgoing packets to replace the private IP address with its own public address. This allows multiple devices to share a single public IP address for outgoing internet communication, thus conserving the limited pool of available public IP addresses.

In addition to enabling connections to the internet, NAT also aids in maintaining a level of security for the internal network by obscuring the private IP addresses from external networks. This means that external servers cannot directly identify or attack the specific devices within the local network, adding an additional layer of protection to the internal network infrastructure.

The other options involve functions irrelevant to NAT's purpose. Encrypting data is typically done using protocols such as SSL/TLS, assigning IP addresses is the function of DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), and filtering incoming traffic pertains to the role of firewalls rather than NAT.