NAT Gateway
A NAT Gateway enables instances in a private subnet to connect to the internet or other AWS services but prevents the internet or other AWS services from initiating a connection with those instances. A NAT Gateway works by translating the private IP addresses of instances within a private subnet to public IP addresses. When an instance in a private subnet wants to communicate with the internet, it sends the traffic to the NAT Gateway. The NAT Gateway then translates the private IP address to a public IP address and sends the traffic to the internet.
A NAT Gateway is commonly used when you have resources within a private subnet that require outbound internet access but should not be directly accessible from the internet. For example, if you have a database server running within your VPC, you can use a NAT Gateway to allow it to access the internet for software updates or to retrieve data from an external source.
Difference Between Internet Gateway and NAT Gateway
Pre-requisite: AWS
In the world of networking, the terms “Internet Gateway” and “NAT Gateway” are commonly used, but they can often be confusing. In this article, we will explain the difference between an Internet Gateway and NAT Gateway. We will define each term and explain how they work, their use cases, and the main differences between them.