As a kid I didn’t get it either but would port forward, run a vpn server, reverse proxy, and so on. It was a good learning experience trying to get my friends to install vpn clients!
... to companies like IPXO that are trying to acquire, rent, and treat IPv4 addresses like speculative real estate.
Right, but then ISPs and hosting providers would have to have supported ipv6 10 years ago (or even earlier) when we ran out. Customers were already demanding multiple devices on their wifi 20 years ago, and without NAT, ipv6 would have been necessary.
With NAT, you can't do p2p or self hosting. Without it, you couldn't use centralized services either.
And for those that say "but security!", firewalls are a thing, and need be no more complicated than NAT.
At least until the 10G fiber upgrade happens, Sonic has given me a static IPv4 address for a decade.
It's not the default choice (most people don't need one), but people that do need a static IP can get one.
My current IP hasn't changed in years but I need to pony up if I want them to guarantee it forever.
Yes, but it's only for grandfathered DSL.
https://help.sonic.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009880293-Static...
That doesn’t mean most getting online today in Asia or Africa basically have a choice other than CGNAT IPv4 and IPv6 from their ISP. Your own dynamically assigned IPv4 is a relative luxury.
> Even after learning about how NAT works, I had no way to work around it, as my ISP blocked the router's web interface and I was unable to do port forwarding.
Well this is Hacker News, you replace the router with your own.
I have yet to encounter a residential wireline ISP in the US or Europe where using your own router is not a possibility. Even those that implemented 802.1x or similar I have been able to either deal with directly or work around. Not saying there don’t exist counterexamples but I would assume using an alternative router +/- MITM the old one would have been viable.
Of course if the ISP was firewalling (likely) then you have a different problem.
This isn’t really a NAT issue. More of a specific ISP policy issue. (NAT and ipv4 have nothing to do with it, they can just as easily port block inbound 80/443 on ipv6.)
The argument boils down to: My ISP locked down the admin page on my rented router ergo NAT is evil. It’s not terribly sensible.