> None of that was needed, but why make a proper fix when you can instead do a series of band-aids? It was needed temporarily until we got more address space.

> None of that was needed, but why make a proper fix when you can instead do a series of band-aids? It was needed temporarily until we got more address space. The original NAT RFC 1631 (later 3022) was released in 1994: The huge advantage of this approach is that it can be installed incrementally, without changes to either hosts or routers. (A few unusual applications may require changes). As such, this solution can be implemented and experimented with quickly. If nothing else, this solution can serve to provide temporarily relief while other, more complex and far-reaching solutions are worked out. * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1631 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1631 It served its purpose, and folks should be moving past it now.