TP-Link TL-ER604W manual 3 WAN, WAN Mode,  NAT Mode,  Non-NAT Mode,  Classic Mode

Figure 3-5 System Mode

You can select a System Mode for your Router according to your network need.

NAT Mode

NAT (Network Address Translation) mode allows the Router to translate private IP addresses within internal networks to public IP addresses for traffic transport over external networks, such as the Internet. Incoming traffic is translated back for delivery within the internal network. However, the Router will drop all the packets whose source IP addresses are in different subnet of LAN port. For example: If the LAN port of the Router is set to 192.168.0.1 for IP address and 255.255.255.0 for the Subnet Mask, then the subnet of LAN port is 192.168.0.0/24. The packet with 192.168.0.123 as its source IP address can be transported by NAT, whereas the packet with 20.31.76.80 as its source IP address will be dropped.

Non-NAT Mode

In this mode, the Router functions as the traditional Gateway and forwards the packets via routing protocol. The Hosts in different subnets can communicate with one another via the routing rules whereas no NAT is employed.

Note:

In Non-NAT mode, all the NAT forwarding rules will be disabled.

Classic Mode

It's the combined mode of NAT mode and Non-NAT mode. In Classic mode, the Router will first transport the packets which are compliant with NAT forwarding rules and then match the other packets to the static routing rules. The matched packets will be transmitted based on the static routing rules and the unmatched ones will be dropped. In this way, the Router can implement NAT for the packets without blocking the packets in the different subnet of the ports.

3.1.3 WAN

3.1.3.1WAN Mode

TL-ER604W provides two adjustable WAN ports. You can set the number of WAN ports on this page.

Choose the menu Network→WAN→WAN Mode to load the following page.

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