--- title: Hmmm: Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing «... description: Cloudflare published a blog post about their Automatic Return Routing technology, which solves the problem of accessing shared resources from clients with... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/hmmm-cloudflare-s-automatic-return-routing-ipspace-net-blog-gviom2nil twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Hmmm: Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing « ipSpace.net blog | daily.dev og:description: Cloudflare published a blog post about their Automatic Return Routing technology, which solves the problem of accessing shared resources from clients with... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/hmmm-cloudflare-s-automatic-return-routing-ipspace-net-blog-gviom2nil og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/gvIOM2NiL.png og:image:alt: Hmmm: Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing « ipSpace.net blog og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Hmmm: Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing « ipSpace.net blog **[ipSpace.net Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Cloudflare published a blog post about their Automatic Return Routing technology, which solves the problem of accessing shared resources from clients with overlapping IP address ranges. This critique argues that despite Cloudflare's marketing framing of 'VRFs and NAT are bad,' their solution is functionally equivalent to well-orchestrated inter-VRF NAT at scale — using session information to select forwarding tables (VRFs) and inevitably requiring port remapping (NAT) when two clients share the same source IP and port. The author acknowledges it's likely a solid technical solution but criticizes the negative marketing hype used to sell it. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing handle overlapping IP address spaces? Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing uses session information to select the forwarding table (tunnel) for return traffic — functionally equivalent to VRFs. It also must handle the edge case of two clients sharing the same source IP and source port, which requires port remapping — functionally equivalent to NAT. The result is well-orchestrated inter-VRF NAT at scale, despite marketing that frames VRFs and NAT negatively. _Network engineers evaluating Cloudflare's networking claims track this kind of technical analysis on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How Automatic Return Routing solves IP overlap](https://daily.dev/posts/how-automatic-return-routing-solves-ip-overlap-qipmxwcj8) · Cloudflare · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenShift networking evolved: Real routing, no NAT or asymmetry](https://daily.dev/posts/openshift-networking-evolved-real-routing-no-nat-or-asymmetry-kvqmai0i2) · Red Hat Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [When Every Network is 192.168.1.x](https://daily.dev/posts/when-every-network-is-192-168-1-x-pyoxabdb5) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Cloudflare Introduces Support for ASPA, an Emerging Internet Routing Security Standard](https://daily.dev/posts/cloudflare-introduces-support-for-aspa-an-emerging-internet-routing-security-standard-9fcps0m7k) · InfoQ · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Worth Reading: NatJack « ipSpace.net blog](https://daily.dev/posts/worth-reading-natjack-ipspace-net-blog-d5hubg7yu) · ipSpace.net Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cloudflare](https://daily.dev/tags/cloudflare) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/hmmm-cloudflare-s-automatic-return-routing-ipspace-net-blog-gviom2nil) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Hmmm: Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing « ipSpace.net blog","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hmmm-cloudflare-s-automatic-return-routing-ipspace-net-blog-gviom2nil","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/hmmm-cloudflare-s-automatic-return-routing-ipspace-net-blog-gviom2nil"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:52:16.161Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:03:29.983Z","description":"Cloudflare published a blog post about their Automatic Return Routing technology, which solves the problem of accessing shared resources from clients with...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CxzD6vbw--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2005","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--CxzD6vbw--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2005","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"ipSpace.net Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ipSpace.net Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--xS7E82MT--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438303/logos/ipspace?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/hmmm-cloudflare-s-automatic-return-routing-ipspace-net-blog-gviom2nil","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"cloudflare","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ipSpace.net Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ipspace"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Hmmm: Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing « ipSpace.net blog"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/hmmm-cloudflare-s-automatic-return-routing-ipspace-net-blog-gviom2nil#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How does Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing handle overlapping IP address spaces?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Cloudflare's Automatic Return Routing uses session information to select the forwarding table (tunnel) for return traffic — functionally equivalent to VRFs. It also must handle the edge case of two clients sharing the same source IP and source port, which requires port remapping — functionally equivalent to NAT. The result is well-orchestrated inter-VRF NAT at scale, despite marketing that frames VRFs and NAT negatively. Network engineers evaluating Cloudflare's networking claims track this kind of technical analysis on daily.dev."}}]} ```