What is the relationship between NAT and DHCP server in Packet tracer?

[AliAhmed89203]

What is the relationship between NAT and DHCP server in Packet tracer?

Like if I have configured a DHCP server in my network can I or Should I use NAT? Is it possible or not?

I know NAT is for translating private addresses to public ones but if our server is dynamically allocating IP addresses that- is DHCP then can we use NAT? Is this possible and 

Secondly, I have another question regarding NAT like suppose we have three networks linked via a router that is configuring NAT in all networks when we want to communicate to another end-device present in another network we will ping to its IP address that is private like ping 172.0.0.23 or something their is a possibility that same IP address is assigned in other two networks to 2 separate end-devices that is possible as they are independent networks and are using private addresses, then in this case when packet will reach the router it will be sent to both end-devices in both of other two networks like sending packets to end-device that we didn't mean to send. Can such conflict arrive or not? if not then kindly clarify my concept about this? this thing is revolving in my head for the last 2 hours and I don't know the answer. Thanks in advance.

[Richard Burts · Accepted solution]

There are several aspects of your post to address:

First - you ask "Like if I have configured a DHCP server in my network can I or Should I use NAT" As far as "can you" configure nat the answer is that yes you CAN configure nat. As far as "should you" configure nat it depends on what addresses are given out by DHCP.  If DHCP is giving out private IP addresses (10.0.0.0 etc) then yes you should configure nat (unless the outbound link to the Internet provides translation services). If DHCP is giving out Public IP addresses then nat is not needed. The important concept here is that if your network is using private addressing (as is very common) then someone needs to provide address translation. It might be a device in your network or it might be you service provider.

Second you ask "their is a possibility that same IP address is assigned in other two networks to 2 separate end-devices" In a well designed network there will not be 2 different networks that both use the same address block (172.0.0.0 or whatever). If there are 2 networks that use the same address block then you will need to configure address translation for communication between these networks.

[Richard Burts]

I am glad that my explanation was helpful. Thank you for marking this question as solved. This will help other participants in the community to identify discussions which have helpful information. This community is an excellent place to ask questions and to learn about networking. I hope to see you continue to be active in the community.