Netgear ME103 ME103 Reference Manual - Page 90

Reference Manual for the ME103 802.11b ProSafe Wireless Access Point The following figure illustrates a single IP address operation. Private IP addresses assigned by user 192.168.0.2 IP addresses assigned by ISP 192.168.0.3 192.168.0.4 192.168.0.1 172.21.15.105 Internet 192.168.0.5 Figure 6-5: Single IP Address Operation Using NAT 7786EA This scheme offers the additional benefit of firewall-like protection because the internal LAN addresses are not available to the Internet through the translated connection. All incoming inquiries are filtered out by the router. This filtering can prevent intruders from probing your system. However, using port forwarding, you can allow one PC (for example, a Web server) on your local network to be accessible to outside users. For more information about IP address translation, refer to RFC 1631, The IP Network Address Translator (NAT). IP Configuration by DHCP When an IP-based local area network is installed, each PC must be configured with an IP address. If the PCs need to access the Internet, they should also be configured with a gateway address and one or more DNS server addresses. As an alternative to manual configuration, there is a method by which each PC on the network can automatically obtain this configuration information. A device on the network may act as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. The DHCP server stores a list or pool of IP addresses, along with other information (such as gateway and DNS addresses) that it may assign to the other devices on the network. The ME103 Access Point has the capacity to act as a DHCP server. C-8 Network, Routing, Firewall, and Cabling Basics August 2003