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# Setting NAT options for your base station or Time Capsule

To set up Network Address Translation (NAT) options for your AirPort wireless device, open the device’s configuration, click Internet, and make sure the device is set up to share a public IP address in the Connection Sharing pop-up menu, and then click NAT.

## NAT options include:

- Enable default host: A default host is a computer on your network that is exposed to the Internet and receives all inbound traffic. A default host may be useful if you use a computer on your AirPort network to play network games, or want to route all Internet traffic through a single computer.

- Enable NAT Port Mapping Protocol: NAT Port Mapping Protocol (NAT-PMP) is an Internet Engineering Task Force Internet Draft, an alternative to the more common Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol implemented in many NAT routers. NAT-PMP allows a computer in a private network (behind a NAT router) to automatically configure the router to allow clients outside the private network to contact this computer.

  Included in the protocol is a method for retrieving the public IP address of a NAT gateway, allowing a client to make this public IP address and port number known to peers that may wish to communicate with it. This protocol is implemented in current Apple products, including Mac OS X10.4 Tiger, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express networking products, Time Capsule, and Bonjour for Windows.

To set NAT options, your base station or Time Capsule must be set up to share its Internet connection using DHCP and NAT.

### Related Topics

Network Address Translation (NAT)

port mapping