IP Masquerade (MASQ / IPMASQ)

About

IP Masquerade ¹⁾ is a networking function that allows a computer to act as an IP gateway that translates address ²⁾ similar to the one-to-many (1:Many) NAT (Network Address Translation) servers found in:

• firewalls
• and network routers.

IP Masquerade is also known as:

• IPMASQ
• or MASQ for short,

Usage

If:

• a Linux host is connected to the Internet via PPP, Ethernet, etc.,
• other “internal” computers are connected to this Linux host (via PPP, Ethernet, etc.))

the IP Masquerade feature allows the “internal” computers

• to reach the Internet as well.
• without any assigned IP address.

It allows a set of machines to invisibly access the Internet via the MASQ gateway.

It can be used with any lan connection (ethernet, …)

A masquerade would replace the source address:

• of the private IP addresses (which are not routed on the internet),
• by the public IP address of the server

Ip Masquerade vs NAT vs Proxy

how Masquerade, NAT, and Proxy differ, see what-is-masq

• MASQ (1:Many)
• 1:1 (true) NAT