Is WinNAT (i.e. Get-NetNat/New-NetNat) supported on Win10 Pro?

Question

Regarding WinNAT on Win10 Pro, is Get-NetNat/New-NetNat supported and/or does it need to be enabled somehow (like old netsh routing ip nat install)

I get the following error with PS:

PS C:\> New-NetNat -Name WGNAT -InternalIPInterfaceAddressPrefix 10.0.0.1/24

>>

New-NetNat : Invalid class
At line:1 char:2
+  New-NetNat -Name WGNAT -InternalIPInterfaceAddressPrefix 10.0.0.1/24
+  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : MetadataError: (MSFT_NetNat:root/StandardCimv2/MSFT_NetNat) [New-NetNat], CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : HRESULT 0x80041010,New-NetNat

--
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hi @Lars-Hammarstrand@CENTIX ,

It is supported on Windows 10 Pro, just make sure you have the following requirements:

• Windows 10 Anniversary Update or later
• Hyper-V is enabled (instructions here)

For more information see:

Set up a NAT network
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/user-guide/setup-nat-network

----------

(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote or accept as answer, thank you)

Best regards,
Leon

Answer 2

Thanks, but is Hyper-V really necessary since the service already is there but not started (se below).

Anyhow, I'll enable hyper-v and check if that solves the problem. If that's the case someone at MS should clarify that "WinNAT" is a pure Hyper-V subsystem. Btw, du you know if ICS (internet con. sharing) utilize the same driver ie. "winnat.sys" ?

PS C:\> Get-Service  winnat  | fl *


Name                : winnat
RequiredServices    : {Tcpip}
CanPauseAndContinue : False
CanShutdown         : False
CanStop             : False
DisplayName         : Windows NAT Driver
DependentServices   : {}
MachineName         : .
ServiceName         : winnat
ServicesDependedOn  : {Tcpip}
ServiceHandle       : SafeServiceHandle
Status              : ** STOPPED **
ServiceType         : KernelDriver
StartType           : Manual
Site                : 
Container           : 


start-Service winnat; Get-Service winnat  | fl *

Name                : winnat
RequiredServices    : {Tcpip}
CanPauseAndContinue : False
CanShutdown         : False
CanStop             : True
DisplayName         : Windows NAT Driver
DependentServices   : {}
MachineName         : .
ServiceName         : winnat
ServicesDependedOn  : {Tcpip}
ServiceHandle       : SafeServiceHandle
Status              : ** RUNNING **
ServiceType         : KernelDriver
StartType           : Manual
Site                : 
Container           : 

Answer 3

Yepp, Hyper-V did it!

Interesting enough I'll get a different error after I disabled Hyper-V once again but a somewhat more consistent error code "Provider load failure" since the subsystem isn't available:

PS C:\> Get-NetNat
Get-NetNat : Provider load failure 
At line:1 char:1
+ Get-NetNat
+ ~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (MSFT_NetNat:root/StandardCimv2/MSFT_NetNat) [Get-NetNat], CimException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : HRESULT 0x80041013,Get-NetNat

Answer 4

Btw, can you please get in touch MS and ask them to clarify in the docs that WinNAT (and associated PS cmdlets) only is available for RAS and Hyper-V.

Thanks in advance!