The Rise of NAT: A Necessary Evil in Networking | Chaos Lever

Chaos Lever Podcast

Fifth-generation programming languages? Generations don’t even matter anymore. We’re basically at iPhone generation 16-and-a-half, and at some point, people are just making stuff up. Speaking of making things up, today’s episode of Chaos Lever is all about NAT (Network Address Translation), a necessary evil—or maybe just evil—that helped shape the internet as we know it. To break it all down, we’re joined by the legendary Ivan Pepelnjak, a CCIE Emeritus, BGP wizard, and all-around networking guru. He’s here to walk us through the chaotic history of NAT, why it happened, and why, despite all efforts, it’s never really going away.

We dive into the days when IP was just one of many competing protocols, when grabbing an IP block was as easy as sending an email, and when the first NAT implementations were only meant to be a temporary fix.

Spoiler alert: that temporary fix became the foundation of modern networking. Ivan shares his firsthand experience from decades in the field, discussing why IPv6 adoption has been slow, how carrier-grade NAT is making things even messier, and why the dream of a fully end-to-end connected internet never really stood a chance. Plus, we touch on some truly wild networking trivia—like how stock exchanges measure fiber cable lengths to the nanosecond.

If you’ve ever wondered why your home Wi-Fi setup still relies on NAT, why cloud providers and ISPs are desperate to push IPv6, or what networking challenges we’ll still be complaining about in another 20 years, this episode is for you. Stick around for some networking history, a bit of good-natured industry snark, and of course, a little chaos. And if you make it all the way to the end? Congrats, you’ve earned the right to set up your own double-NAT configuration at home—for "fun".

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LINKS

🔗 Chaos Lever Website: https://chaoslever.com
🔗 Chaos Lever LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaoslever
🔗 Ivan Pepelnjak’s Blog & Networking Resources: https://blog.ipspace.net
🔗 NetLab Open Source Project: https://netlab.tools