Private address and static IP as an commercial offer.

At 09:48 AM 18.6.01, Randy Bush wrote:
>what benefits are there?  and before you say "security" please go read
>just about any mailing list archive.

The immediate benefit is that you can use a *large* amount of address space.
This allows you to make an addressing plan that matches the 
current and expected structure of your network much better than the
smaller amount that is strictly necessary according to the assignment rules
for public address space. 

If your network is of a mainly private nature with well defined needs for 
external connectivity that are not expected to change rapidly, NAT is an option.
If you want your hosts on the Internet all the time and want to be able to meet 
the needs of new applications quickly then NAT is probably not a good idea.

At home I run a neighbourhood network behind a NAT. The reason to choose for a NAT
here is to allow for easy build-out and extension with an un-plannable number of hosts.
Basically each house has a largish block of DHCP distributed addresses. This way 
people do not have to interact with me when they connect a new machine.
You won't believe how many computers have surfaced in some homes. The newest fad is laptoys.
Still I have had no complaints about services people cannot use. 

Daniel