Why can't every device have its own unique IP address?
Network address translation
Why can't every device have its own unique IP address?
Imagine you're in a small apartment building with only one phone line. Everyone wants their own phone number, but there's only one available.
NAT allows multiple devices to share a single IP address by changing the IP address information in the packet header, so everyone can use the one phone line.
Example
Your laptop (IP: 192.168.1.2) and smartphone (IP: 192.168.1.3) both send data to the Internet using the same home IP address (192.168.1.1) through NAT.
Remember this
NAT lets many devices use one IP address, conserving the limited number of available IP addresses.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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