(NAT, or Network Address Translator, Virtual LAN) A hardware device currently being developed and used to extend the Internet addresses already in use. NAT has been suggested as an alternative to adopting IPv6 (IPng). It allows duplicate IP addresses to be used within a corporation and unique addresses outside.

["NATs are next naughty Internet issue", Christine Hudgins-Bonafield <[email protected]>, in "Network Computing", March 1, 1995].