Tag Archives: NAT46

Optimized NAT46 Config on a FortiGate

Fortinet, Internet Access, IPv6, NAT, Tutorial/Howto, , , , ,

Johannes published a basic NAT46 configuration for a Fortigate firewall with FortiOS 7.0 some time ago. I run such a service (legacy IPv4 access to IPv6-only resources) since FortiOS 5.6, which means more than six years; lastly with FortiOS 6.4. It’s running for more than 100 servers without any other problems as we see them with IPv4 only or dual stack services.

But we weren’t happy with the basic configuration example by Fortinet. We wanted some NAT46 sample configuration with more details, that is: including the original source IPv4 address within the synthesized/SNATted IPv6 address. More in this post, after a short story about my way to a running nat46 configuration with port forwarding in FortiOS 7.2.x.

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Accessing IPv6-only Resources via Legacy IP: NAT46 on a FortiGate

Fortinet, Internet Access, IPv6, NAT, , , , , , , ,

In general, Network Address Translation (NAT) solves some problems but should be avoided wherever possible. It has nothing to do with security and is only a short-term solution on the way to IPv6. (Yes, I know, the last 20 years have proven that NAT is used everywhere every time. ?) This applies to all kinds of NATs for IPv4 (SNAT, DNAT, PAT) as well as for NPTv6 and NAT66.

However, there are two types of NATs that do not only change the network addresses but do a translation between the two Internet Protocols, that is IPv4 <-> IPv6 and vice versa. Let’s focus on NAT46 this time. In which situations is it used and why? Supplemented by a configuration guide for the FortiGates, a downloadable PCAP and Wireshark screenshots.

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