NIC Card and Ethernet Protocol

Network Interface Card (NIC) is also referred to as an Ethernet card. It also called a network adapter. It is a circuit board that is installed in a computer so that it can be connected to a network.  A network interface card provides the computer with a dedicated, full-time connection to a network. Personal computers and workstations on a local area network typically contain a network interface card specifically designed for the LAN transmission technology. Most new computers have a network interface built-in directly into the motherboard. Network Interface Card enables a computer to connect to a network; such as a home network, or the Internet using an Ethernet cable with an RJ-45 connector and wires.

Types of Network Interface

There is a different form of the network card. But the two main ones are wired and wireless. Wireless NICs Uses wireless technologies to connect the network, so they have one or more antennas. Wired NICs just use an RJ45 port since they have an Ethernet cable attached to the end. This makes them much flatter than wireless network cards.

Speed of Network Interface Card (NIC)

All network interface cards have a different speed rating, such as 10 Mbps, 11 Mbps, 54 Mbps or 100 Mbps, and 1000 Mbps. The speed describes the general performance of the interface card.  It’s important that the speed of the NIC does not necessarily determine the speed of the internet connection. This is due to reasons like available bandwidth and the speed you’re paying for. For example, if your DSL speed is 16 Mbps and your NIC Speed is 100 Mbps, So network interface card will not increase the speed of your internet.  but, if your DSL speed is 16 Mbps and your NIC is 10 Mbps, So your internet speed will also slow down to 10 Mbps.

Network Interface Card Driver

All hardware devices installed in computers need device drivers in order to work with the software on the computer. If installed network card isn’t working, it’s mean that the driver is missing, corrupted or outdated. The updating of driver software required in internet connection in order to download the driver. But the problem is that your network card is not working and you cannot access the internet. So you can download a driver on a computer that is connected to the internet from the card manufacturers site and then transfer using a USB drive or CD.

Ethernet

The Ethernet is both a data link and the physical layer main component for local area networks (LANs). Robert Metcalfe and D.R. Boggs invented this in 1972. Ethernet is a network protocol that controls how data transmitted over a LAN. Technically it is referred to as the IEEE 802.3 protocol. It is also used in contrast with WAN which spans larger geographical areas.

The Ethernet protocol standards describe many aspects of network communication as well as frame format, frame size, timing, and encoding. It’s telling, how networked devices can format data for transmission to other network devices on the same network segment, and describe how to put that data out on the network connection.

It is a contention-based method of networking. A contention-based method means that any device can try to send data across the shared medium when it has data to send. The Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) process uses in half-duplex Ethernet LANs to detect and resolve collisions. Today’s Ethernet LANs use full-duplex switches, which allow multiple devices to send and receive simultaneously with no collisions.

The OSI model describes separately both the data link layer function and the physical standards of the media. The Ethernet standard defines both the Layer 2 protocols and the Layer 1 technologies. According to specification, It supports different media, bandwidths, and other Layer 1 and 2 variations. The basic frame format and address scheme are the same for all types of Ethernet.