[arin-ppml] IPv4 Depletion as an ARIN policy concern

[Chris Engel]

"Except that NAT breaks lots of protocols by breaking a fundamental network requirement. Universal addressing. And how many billions of dollars are wasted in re-designing protocols to work with NAT because, despite what the net admin wants, the actual users require working applications and protocols.

What NAT brings to the table is, if I may use a telephony analogy, a return to the time before direct dial long distance calling. To the time of calling the operator to place a call.

For brief time in the early 90's, pre NAT, we early adoptors all had real addresses at our desks and clean protocols... Oh yeah, we also have firewalls too..

-lee"


Respectfully,

The "actual end users" also want to surf adult movie sites, click on every link that says Download Me and publish thier network passwords on thier facebook page so that they don't forget them. They are perfectly welcome to do that..... ON THIER OWN DIME...and on thier own home networks.

However organizations pay Network Admins specificaly to prevent the "actual users" from doing all these sorts of things when using THE ORGANIZATIONS NETWORK.  Admins are responsible for assuring that have control over are healthy and functional and support ONLY those applications and protocols that organization WANTS to work....and NOTHING ELSE.

NAT is a tool that has some very important functionality for doing just that.....among other things.

There are VERY GOOD reasons to want to abstract an networks internal structure from it's external presence. There are very good reasons to have BOUNDRIES and INTERMEDIARIES between end users and the outside world....or vice versa.


"Universal addressing" ia actualy...in practice... very much NOT a Universal good.