What is the role of NAT in FortiGate and how do you configure object-based NAT?

• A. NAT translates private addresses to a public or other address; use address objects and configure NAT in firewall policies or the policy route to translate addresses.
• B. NAT translates public addresses to private addresses automatically, with no object definitions.
• C. NAT is only used for VPN traffic and cannot be applied to regular traffic.
• D. NAT is optional and FortiGate can function without any NAT rules.

Answer: (A)

NAT is about making internal hosts reachable from outside by translating private IP addresses to public (or other) addresses as traffic leaves the network, and it also helps hide internal addressing from the outside. In FortiGate, object-based NAT lets you define exactly which translated address to use by creating address objects that represent the public IPs (or IP pool) you want to map to. You then apply NAT in a firewall policy (or a policy route) and specify that translation target as that address object. This lets you reuse the same translation targets across multiple policies and manage them in one place.

So, you create address objects for the translated addresses, and in the firewall policy you enable NAT and pick that object as the NAT target. FortiGate will then translate the source addresses of matching traffic to the address object, enabling Internet access from private networks. This approach is how object-based NAT is configured and used. The other choices misstate NAT’s scope or capabilities—for example, NAT isn’t automatic with no objects, isn’t limited only to VPN traffic, and isn’t universally optional for Internet-facing scenarios.