Network address translation

Abstract

A method including receiving, at a virtual private network (VPN) server, an encapsulated packet on one of the ingress addresses wherein the ingress address is associated with the packet information. After processing the packet at the VPN server, the packet source address is transformed to the address of the ingress port before transmitting the packet over a network. The process may be effectuated in the operating system's kernel. The association step may include tracking the ingress port in a data store, or tagging the packet with the ingress address so it can be later used to modify the source address. Transforming may include swapping TCP source and destination port information, changing an IP or TCP header checksum, changing a TCP sequence and acknowledgment number, or changing an IP addresses contained in the data payload.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.