NAT translation and/or oversubscription

[Ghostwriter66]

I work on a USAF base.

We are looking for a means where we can do multiple NAT translation and/or oversubscription. 

I have multiple IP devices (cameras) that need to connect to a single IP address. Our cable provider gives us ONE IP address and I need to connect 10-20 camera to the internet via that one internet connection. It seems that all the CISCO products that we are finding only do 1-to-1 NAT and I guess we need to find 1-to-many. Any suggestions??  

[AllertGen]

Hello, Ghostwriter66.

You can look at this: http://www.ciscozine.com/nat-and-pat-a-complete-explanation/ There is the most cases of how to use NAT on Cisco. I think your case is example #3 or #4. Or you can use both of them (#4 to give cameras access to internet and #3 to have access from internet to the cameras).

Best Regards.

[Ghostwriter66]

AllertGen.

SO do you think that the CISCO product RV042G would be able to do what I need for it to do??? PAT in overload. (basically have 20-30 10.10.x.x subnet IP addresses all connect to the RV042G and then use a single ISP provided IP address to hit the web?) It is clearly stating that it can only handle 1-to-1 NAT. If the RV042G is indeed NOT the correct router can you or someone point me to the correct router??

Thank You.  

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/routers/rv042g-dual-gigabit-wan-vpn-router/data_sheet_c78-706724.html

[AllertGen]

Hi, Ghostwriter66.

Well, for any route it's a basic functionality (NAT for a network, not a 1-to-1 NAT). As I can undenstand in your case you just want give access to the internet for a cameras. So it's just a usual NAT (dynamic NAT in Cisco).

In fact RV042G is not cleary a "Cisco" device. It's a "Linksys" device. And as I can undenstand RV042G don't have IOS, it has it's own OS. Usually such type of devices works as NAT between LAN (1-4) and WAN (Internet) ports by default. Sometimes you need to change device mode to the "router" status to enable it. I don't know Linksys devices well (in fact I hate them :) ) so I myself can't help you with this device.

You can try to wait anybody who know Linsys well to help you with it or you can try post your question here: http://community.linksys.com/t5/Wired-Routers/bd-p/Wired_Routers

PS SOHO devices of the Cisco is routers of 800 series. You can chose any device of this series and they will have this and a lot of other functions (this information is only if you really want change your device).

Best Regards.

[Richard Burts]

The original poster has not told us whether the traffic is initiated from the cameras toward the single IP address or whether the single IP address would initiate traffic toward the cameras. And that is an important aspect that will determine what is the appropriate solution.

If the cameras initiate the traffic and the single IP address only sends response traffic then an appropriate solution would be PAT. In Port Address Translation the router will do dynamic translation for multiple inside addresses as they need to access outside resources using the IP address of the outside interface. And the data sheet does indicate that the RV042 does support PAT.

If the single IP address outside does initiate traffic to the cameras then there needs to be a static address translation for each camera. And with a single public IP on the router that will be a challenge. The closest that I can think of would be to configure port forwarding where the single IP address outside would need to send traffic to each camera using the public IP of the router and a unique destination port. In this case the router could take the incoming traffic and based on the destination port number could forward the traffic to the appropriate camera. It is not clear to me whether the RV042 supports this and I suspect that it would not be a supported function on the single outside IP device.

HTH

Rick

[Ghostwriter66]

Rick.

Not sure how to answer your question so will tell you the scenario ... we have 10-30 IP devices - some of them cameras - some of them notebooks - some of the tablets - that all need to hit the internet to function. Lets just talk about the tablets for a moment since this is the main priority. The 7 tablets all need to hit the internet - and pull down certain safety inspection forms for the gate guards from the internet that the guys in the field can populate and then send back to the main office 1700 miles away...That's the main priority right now ...  

The local ISP has given us one single IP address. So right now literally 6 people have to all wait for one guy to sign on - do his report - sign off and then they sign on - one at a time.

Question is - WHAT CISCO ROUTER DO WE NEED TO GO OUT AN PURCHASE MONDAY TO CONDUCT "PAT in overload".

We will then find a CISCO expert (there has to be a few million in Austin TX we would figure) to do the correct configuration. But at this point just really need to know what to order.

[Richard Burts]

In my response I tried to explain that there is an important question that you need to answer about whether any of the devices in your network need to be accessible from the Internet - is there any device or any application that the Internet needs to initiate the traffic to the device or application? If there is not anything where the Internet device initiates the traffic then PAT would be a viable solution. The data sheet indicates that the RV042 does support PAT. If you want a different router you might look at the Cisco 881 router or at the Cisco 1921 router.

HTH

Rick