• SonicOS 8 Rules and Policies
• Overview
  • Working with SonicOS
  • SonicOS Workflow
  • How to Use the SonicOS Administration Guides
  • Guide Conventions
• Access Rules
  • Setting Firewall Access Rules
    • About Connection Limiting
    • Using Bandwidth Management with Access Rules
      • Enabling Bandwidth Management on an Access Rule
    • Creating Access Rules
    • Configuring Access Rules for IPv6
      • About Stateful Packet Inspection Default Access Rules
    • Enabling and Disabling Access Rules
    • Editing Access Rules
    • Deleting Access Rules
    • Restoring Access Rules to Default Settings
    • Displaying Access Rules
      • By Zones
      • By Column
    • Displaying Access Rule Traffic Statistics
    • Configuring Access Rules for NAT64
    • Configuring Access Rules for a Zone
    • Access Rules for DNS Proxy
    • User Priority for Access Rules
  • Access Rule Configuration Examples
    • Enabling Ping
    • Blocking LAN Access for Specific Services
    • Allowing WAN Primary IP Access from the LAN Zone
• NAT Rules
  • About NAT in SonicOS
  • About NAT Load Balancing
    • Determining the NAT LB Method to Use
    • Caveats
    • How Load Balancing Algorithms are Applied
    • Sticky IP Algorithm Examples
      • Example One - Mapping to a Network
      • Example Two - Mapping to an IP Address Range
  • About NAT64
    • Use of Pref64::/n
  • About FQDN-based NAT
  • About Source MAC Address Override
  • Viewing NAT Policy Entries
    • Changing the Display
    • Filtering the Display
    • Displaying Information about Policies
  • Adding or Editing NAT or NAT64 Rule Policies
  • Deleting NAT Policies
  • Creating NAT Rule Policies: Examples
    • Creating a One-to-One NAT Policy for Inbound Traffic
    • Creating a One-to-One NAT Policy for Outbound Traffic
    • Inbound Port Address Translation via One-to-One NAT Policy
    • Inbound Port Address Translation via WAN IP Address
    • Creating a Many-to-One NAT Policy
    • Creating a Many-to-Many NAT Policy
    • Creating a One-to-Many NAT Load Balancing Policy
    • Creating a NAT Load Balancing Policy for Two Web Servers
    • Creating a WAN-to-WAN Access Rule for a NAT64 Policy
    • DNS Doctoring
• Routing
  • About Routing
    • About Metrics and Administrative Distance
      • About Metrics
      • About Administrative Distance
    • Route Advertisement
    • ECMP Routing
    • Policy-based Routing
    • Policy-based TOS Routing
    • PBR Metric-based Priority
    • Policy-based Routing and IPv6
    • OSPF and RIP Advanced Routing Services
      • About Routing Services
        • Protocol Type
        • Maximum Hops
        • Split-Horizon
        • Poison Reverse
        • Routing Table Updates
        • Subnet Sizes Supported
        • Autonomous System Topologies
      • OSPF Terms
    • Drop Tunnel Interface
    • App-based Routing
  • Rules and Policies > Routing Rules
    • Configuring Routing Rules
      • Adding Static Routes
      • Probe-Enabled Policy-based Routing Configuration
• DNS Rules
  • Creating DNS Filtering Profiles
  • Configuring DNS Filtering
    • Creating DNS Policy Rules
      • Editing DNS Policies
      • Deleting DNS Policies
    • Configuring Global DNS Filtering Settings
    • Configuring DNS Filtering Custom Domains
  • Viewing DNS Rules Information
    • Viewing DNS Rules Using the Dashboard
    • Viewing DNS Filtering Reports
• Content Filter Rules
  • About Content Filtering Rules (CFS)
    • About Content Filter Rules
    • About UUIDs for CFS Policies
    • About Content Filter Action Objects
    • How CFS Works
  • Configuring CFS Policies
    • About the Content Filter Rule Table
      • Searching the Content Filter Rule Table
    • Adding a Content Filter Rule
    • Editing a Content Filter Rule
    • Deleting Content Filter Rules
• App Rules
  • About App Rules
    • What are App Rules?
      • About App Rules Policies
      • About App Rules Capabilities
    • Benefits of App Rules
    • How Does Application Control Work?
    • About App Rules Policy Creation
    • Licensing App Rules and App Control
    • Terminology
  • Rules and Policies > App Rules
    • Configuring an App Rules Policy
  • Verifying App Rules Configuration
    • Useful Tools
      • Wireshark
      • Hex Editor
  • App Rules Use Cases
    • Creating a Regular Expression in a Match Object
    • Policy-based Application Rules
    • Logging Application Signature-based Policies
    • Compliance Enforcement
    • Server Protection
    • Hosted Email Environments
    • Email Control
    • Web Browser Control
    • HTTP Post Control
    • Forbidden File Type Control
    • ActiveX Control
    • FTP Control
      • Blocking Outbound Proprietary Files Over FTP
      • Blocking Outbound UTF-8 / UTF-16 Encoded Files
      • Blocking FTP Commands
    • Bandwidth Management
    • Bypass DPI
    • Custom Signature
    • Reverse Shell Exploit Prevention
      • Generating the Network Activity
      • Capturing and Exporting the Payload to a Text File Using Wireshark
      • Creating a Match Object
      • Defining the Policy
• Endpoint Rules
• SonicWall Support
  • About This Document

About NAT in SonicOS

Before configuring NAT policies, be sure to create all address objects associated with the policy. For instance, if you are creating a one-to-one NAT policy, be sure you have address objects for your public and private IP addresses.

By default, LAN to WAN has a NAT policy predefined on the firewall.

The Network Address Translation (NAT) engine in SonicOS allows you to define granular NAT policies for your incoming and outgoing traffic. By default, the firewall has a preconfigured NAT policy to allow all systems connected to the X0 interface to perform many-to-one NAT using the IP address of the X1 interface, and a policy to not perform NAT when traffic crosses between the other interfaces. NAT policies are automatically created when certain features are enabled, such as the Enable Local Radius Server option in WLAN zone configuration, and are deleted when the feature is disabled. This section explains how to set up the most common NAT policies.

Understanding how to use NAT policies starts with examining the construction of an IP packet. Every packet contains addressing information that allows the packet to get to its destination, and for the destination to respond to the original requester. The packet contains (among other things) the requester’s IP address, the protocol information of the requester, and the destination’s IP address. The NAT Policies engine in SonicOS can inspect the relevant portions of the packet and can dynamically rewrite the information in specified fields for incoming, as well as outgoing traffic.

You can add up to 512 - 2048 NAT policies depending on the SonicWall network security platform, and they can be as granular as you need. It is also possible to create multiple NAT policies for the same object — for instance, you can specify that an internal server use one IP address when accessing Telnet servers, and to use a totally different IP address for all other protocols. Because the NAT engine in SonicOS supports inbound port forwarding, it is possible to hide multiple internal servers off the WAN IP address of the firewall. The more granular the NAT policy, the more precedence it takes.