[CLUE-Tech] NAT blocks P2P?

[Jed S. Baer]

Hi Folks.

Referring to this from the Politech mailing list:
http://politechbot.com/pipermail/politech/2004-March/000524.html

John Walker claims that increases in the use of NATted addressing by
high-speed providers will eventually kill P2P connections on the internet.

Since I'm no NAT guru, I wonder if this is really true? I understand that
in order to establish a P2P connection, each box has to send out, or
otherwise establish, its address, which isn't the same as the routing
interface where NAT is happening. But I'd think there'd be a way for a NAT
interface to somehow figure out that connection x is intended for a
particular address/port on the "inside". IOW, the P2P request would be
directed to the NAT interface, which ought to be able to figure out what
do with it, based on recognizing the protocol, or which port the request
comes in on.

So, I'm just wondering.

jed
-- 
http://s88369986.onlinehome.us/freedomsight/

... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday
facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier