Networking Terms .

 ✳️ DHCP

💠 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) assigns IP addresses dynamically. This means that you do not have the same IP address all of the time. Most of the time, these IP address assignments are on a local area network. Remember, on LANs we use private IP addresses. When each device is connected to the LAN, it must request an IP address. That device sends that request to the DHCP server that then assigns an IP address to that system for a fixed length of time known as a "lease."

💠 Each time you connect to the LAN, you are likely to receive a different (dynamic) IP address, but usually in the same range. For instance, 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255.

✳️ NAT

💠 Network Address Translation (NAT) is protocol whereby internal private IP addresses are "translated" to an external public IP address that can be routed through the internet to its destination. Remember, private IP addresses of the systems inside the LAN cannot use their IP addresses on the internet because they are not unique (every LAN uses basically the same IP addresses inside their network).

💠 The NAT device accepts requests to traverse the internet from an internal machine. It then records that machine's IP address in a table and converts the IP address to the external IP address of the router. When the packet returns from its destination, the NAT device looks into its saved table of the original request and forwards on the packet to the internal IP address of the system that made the original request within the LAN. When working properly, the individual systems and users don't even realize this translation is taking place.