156-581 · Question #86
Which type of NAT allows both incoming and outgoing connections?
The correct answer is A. Static NAT. See the full explanation below for the reasoning.
Question
Which type of NAT allows both incoming and outgoing connections?
Options
- AStatic NAT
- BPort NAT
- CBoth Static and Hide NAT
- DHide NAT
How the community answered
(32 responses)- A81% (26)
- B6% (2)
- C3% (1)
- D9% (3)
Community Discussion
4
Amara A.Nov 3, 2025Static NAT is the correct answer here. It creates a permanent one-to-one mapping between a real IP and a routable IP, which means the firewall can translate in both directions, so external hosts can initiate connections inbound to your internal server and outbound traffic from that server also translates cleanly, something Hide NAT cannot do because it only supports outbound-initiated sessions.
Carlos M.Oct 29, 2025Static NAT is the right call here. It creates a permanent one-to-one mapping between a private IP and a public IP, so traffic can flow both ways, external hosts can initiate connections to your internal server because the mapping is fixed and predictable. Hide NAT (also called PAT or dynamic masquerade) is the gotcha distractor, it hides many private IPs behind one public IP using port translation, but external hosts cannot initiate connections through it because there is no pre-existing inbound mapping. Option C sounds tempting if you think "more is better" but Static NAT alone satisfies the requirement, Hide NAT actively breaks inbound-initiated traffic. Answer is A.
Bahar F.Nov 7, 2025Hide NAT handles bidirectional traffic by design, D is clearly it.
Carlos M.Nov 7, 2025Hey Bahar, actually A is correct here. Hide NAT only supports outbound-initiated connections because multiple internal hosts share one IP, so inbound sessions have nowhere to resolve back to. Static NAT gives you the one-to-one mapping that allows traffic to flow in both directions.