Protocol translation can occur at a specialized node that resides between IPv4 and IPv6 networks. This node is typically referred to as a Network address translation - protocol translation (NAT-PT) device because it must translate between the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, as well as between the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols.

An NAT-PT node plays a similar role to an ALG. Both nodes allow IPv4-only applications to communicate with IPv6-only peers, and both reside in similar places in the network. However, each takes a different approach to accomplish a similar goal.

SOCKS64 is a proxy solution and requires client applications to be updated to use SOCKS64. NAT-PT is not a proxy and requires no changes to either the client or server. Based solely on this, NAT-PT might appear to be a superior solution. However, because of the limitations of NAT-PT and familiarity with SOCKS, it is more likely that SOCKS64 is used to allow IPv4-only applications to communicate with IPv6-only peers.