Newbie in VMWARE: your opinion on my understanding of NAT Network Adapter

[mrdeckard]

Hello everybody,
I am trying to get started on the VMWare workstation. In addition to the countless and important reasons that may make me want to learn VMWare, I can easily create development environments and a kind of laboratory to learn or deepen issues related to networking and network programming.
For these reasons, I am trying to learn the basic concepts. In studying the fundamental concepts, I wanted to ask you if my following consideration is correct:
when I create a VM with Network Adapter set to NAT, can I consider it a computer on a LAN whose router can be considered the host computer? While the computers of the physical LAN, to which the host computer also belongs, can they be considered machines located outside the router and therefore as machines located on the Internet? I think that those are the causes, for which a NAT VM can be reached by the computers of the physical LAN only if port mapping rules are set on the host. Could it be a correct interpretation and, therefore, for use and study tests of networking and network programming, a correct assumption?

Thank you, and forgive my mistakes and any trivialities.

[Mikero · Accepted solution]

when I create a VM with Network Adapter set to NAT, can I consider it a computer on a LAN whose router can be considered the host computer?

Yes. Imagine there's a 'router' in-between your computer and your VM.

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While the computers of the physical LAN, to which the host computer also belongs, can they be considered machines located outside the router and therefore as machines located on the Internet?

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Yah basically. Outer networks relative to internal networks don't necessarily have to be 'The Internet', but yes that is in principle how the Internet operates. Routers forwarding traffic to other routers.

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I think that those are the causes, for which a NAT VM can be reached by the computers of the physical LAN only if port mapping rules are set on the host.

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Correct. You'd have to punch holes in the NAT (and possibly firewalls along the way) to forward traffic from LAN:PORT to NAT:PORT.

For this most folks just use Bridged networking tho. That essentially puts the VM on the same LAN as the host itself, so they'd get their IP from the same source. (i.e. your home or school router, but keep in mind some routers don't want to give 2 IPs to the same physical port, so that's where NAT + Port forwarding would have to be used).

Basically, yes your assumptions are correct.

[mrdeckard]

@Mikero 

Thank you very much for the time you have dedicated to deepening my considerations. These considerations will be a further stimulus to deepen further and study the world and the ecosystem of VMware.
Thank you for your kindness and for the clarity with which you answered my questions!