NIC Card

NIC Stands for Network Interface card. It is one of the most important computer network devices that are used for the data communication and to connect the computers with each other. It is plugged inside the computer either in the PCI slot or it is built-in the motherboard.

A twisted pair UTP/STP with RJ45 connector is used to connect the computer with the Hub or Switch. Fiber optic cable can also be used to connect the computer with the hub or switch.

A NIC can be wired or wireless and it has digital circuitry and microprocessor. A wireless NIC is used to connect the computers with each other wirelessly. There are different vendors of the NIC such as D-Link, 3Com, Intel, Realtek, Baylan and Baynet.

Before buying and installing a network interface card in your computer make sure that it is compatible with the other network devices. NIC card operates on the Data Link and physical layer of the OSI layers model. For every computer in a network, it is required to have a NIC to communicate with other computers.

Every NIC has unique MAC address and no two NIC cards from two different vendors can have the same MAC address. NIC has twisted pair, BNC and AUI sockets. The one end of the network cable is used to connect with the NIC and the other end is used to connect with the hub or switch.

NIC provides the fulltime connectivity for the data transmission. Sometimes computers do not communicate with each other due to the malfunctioning of the NIC.
Hub or a switch in a computer network acts as a relay that passes the information from one computer to another. It is important that the LAN card is compatible with the hub or switch to make the data flow faster to avoid the packet loss and network congestion.