Is it necessary to enable connection tracking to perform NAT in MikroTik RouterOS?

In MikroTik RouterOS, it is not necessary to enable connection tracking to perform Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT can operate using static table entries without requiring the connection tracking feature to be enabled. This means that even in a basic configuration where NAT is being applied, traffic can be translated without the overhead associated with tracking each connection.

Connection tracking helps in scenarios where you need to maintain stateful information about connections, which can be beneficial for more complex NAT configurations, like dynamic NAT or handling return traffic for connections initiated from inside the network. However, for basic NAT tasks, such as translating a static address for a server, connection tracking is not a requirement.

This allows for flexibility in configurations, especially in resource-constrained environments or simpler setups where connection tracking may introduce unwanted complexity or resource usage.