What technique redirects network traffic from one address and port number to another?

• A. Port forwarding
• B. Port redirection
• C. Port mirroring
• D. Port blocking

Answer: (A)

Port forwarding is the technique used to redirect traffic from one address and port to another. It works by configuring a router or firewall with a destination NAT rule so that when a packet arrives at a specific external IP and port, the device rewrites the destination to a chosen internal IP and port and forwards the packet there. This lets services inside a private network be reached from outside or directs incoming traffic to a particular server behind NAT. The essential idea is changing where the traffic is headed without changing the origin point, so the external address and port act as the entry point while the internal endpoint handles the request. Port mirroring duplicates traffic for monitoring rather than rerouting it, and port blocking stops traffic entirely. Port redirection is often used interchangeably with port forwarding, but the mechanism that actually performs the redirection in network devices is port forwarding via NAT/routing rules.