Network Address 71 (NAT) is the process where a network device assigns a public address to a computer (or group of computers) inside a private network. The main use of NAT is to limit the number of public IP addresses that an organization or company must use, for both economy and 72 purposes. When a packet traverses outside the local network, NAT converts the private IP address to a public IP address. If NAT runs out of public addresses, the packets will be dropped and 73 "host unreachable" packets will be sent. Multiple private IP addresses are mapped to a pool of public IP addresses in 74 NAT. In contrast, many private IP addresses can also be translated to a single public IP address, and 75 are used to distinguish the traffics. This is most frequently used as it is cost effective as thousands of users can be connected to the Internet by using only one public IP address.