Network Address Translation translates and IP address used in a network to another IP address known within another network. A NAT table is maintained for global to local and local to mapping of IP's. NAT can be statically defined or dynamically translate from a pool of addresses. The NAT router is responsible for translating traffic coming and leaving the network. NAT prevents malicious activity initiated by outside hosts from reaching local hosts by being dependent on a machine on the local network to initiate any connection to hosts on the other side of the router.

Point to Point protocol helps communication between 2 computers over a serial cable, phone line or other fiber optic lines. E.g. Connection between an Internet Service Provider and a host. PPP also provides authentication. PPP operates by sending Request packets and waiting for Acknowledge packets that accept, reject or try to change the request. The protocol is also used to negotiate on network address or compression options between the nodes.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is used assigning IP addresses to computers in a network. The IP addresses are assigned dynamically. Certainly, using DHCP, the computer will have a different IP address every time it is connected to the network. In some cases the IP address may change even when the computer is in network. This means that DHCP leases out the IP address to the computer for some time. Clear advantage of DHCP is that the software can be used to manage IP address rather than the administrator.

IP spoofing is a mechanism used by attackers to gain unauthorized access to a system. Here, the intruder sends messages to a computer with an IP address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted host. This is done by forging the header so it contains a different address and make it appear that the packet was sent by a different machine.

Prevention:-
Packet filtering: - to allow packets with recognized formats to enter the network Using special routers and firewalls.

IP datagram can be used to describe a portion ofIP data. Each IP datagram has set of fields arranged in an order. The order is specific which helps to decode and read the stream easily. IP datagram has fields like Version,header length,Type of service, Total length. checksum, flag, protocol,Time to live,identification,source and destination ip address,padding,options and payload.