Overview
Port Address Translation (PAT), also known as 'NAT Overload,' is the most common form of NAT used in homes and small businesses. It allows hundreds of devices to share a single public IP address provided by an ISP.
How it Works
The router maintains a translation table that tracks the internal IP and source port for every outgoing connection. When a response comes back, the router uses the destination port to determine which internal device should receive the data.