The embodiment of the invention provides a message forwarding method and apparatus. The message forwarding method and apparatus are applied to access equipment. The message forwarding method comprises the steps: receiving an access message sent from a client; according to a pre-stored corresponding relationship between network protocol IP addresses and network types, determining the network type corresponding to a source IP (Internet Protocol) address of the access message; if the network type corresponding to the source IP address is a private network address, performing security tunnel encapsulation on the access message, and adding a first identifier in a security tunnel encapsulation head; and through the security tunnel, sending the access message after performing security tunnel encapsulation to network equipment so as to enable the network equipment to perform network address translation NAT on the source IP address of the access message according to the first identifier and forward the access message after performing NAT. The message forwarding method and apparatus enable the network equipment to determine whether the message requires NAT.