What is a network adapter?
Network adapter also known as NIC or network interface card (NIC), English name Networkinterfacecard. It is the device that makes the computer networked. The usual network adapter is the one that connects the PC to the LAN. The network card (NIC) is plugged into the computer's motherboard slot and is responsible for converting the data that the user wants to pass into a format that can be recognized by other devices on the network and transmitted over a network medium. Its main technical parameters are bandwidth, bus mode, electrical interface mode and so on.
network adapters must have two major technologies: NIC drivers and I/O technology. The driver is compatible with the network system and realizes the communication between PC and network. I/O technology can realize the communication between PC and network card through the data bus. The network card is the most basic element in the computer network. In a computer local area network, if a computer does not have a network card, then this computer will not be able to communicate with other computers, that is, this computer and the network are isolated.
different types of network adapters: according to the different network technology, the classification of the NIC is also different, such as the well-known ATM network card, Token Ring card and Ethernet network card. According to statistics, at present about 80% of the LAN using Ethernet technology. According to the work of the different objects of the work characteristics of the special design, the price is more expensive, but the performance is very good. In the case of compatible NIC, at present, the network card is generally divided into ordinary workstation network card and server dedicated network card. Server-specific network card is to adapt to a variety of Web services, performance is also different, can be classified according to the following standards: according to the support bandwidth of the network card can be divided into 10M network card, 100M network card, 10/100m Adaptive network card, 1000M network card several; According to the different type of network card bus , EISA network card and PCI network card three categories, which ISA network card and PCI network card more commonly used. The bandwidth of the ISA bus network card is generally the 10M,PCI bus network card bandwidth from 10M to 1000M. The same is the 10M network card, because the ISA bus is 16 bits, and the PCI bus is 32 bits, so the PCI NIC is faster than the ISA NIC.
Network Adapter interface type: depending on the transmission media, the NIC appears with the AUI interface (thick cable interface), BNC interface (thin cable interface) and RJ-45 interface (twisted pair interface) three types of interface. So when choosing a network card, you should pay attention to the type of interface that the NIC supports, otherwise it may not apply to your network. The common 10M network card is mainly the one-port network card (RJ-45 interface or BNC interface) and dual-Interface network card (RJ-45 and BNC two kinds of interfaces), with AUI thick cable interface with fewer cards. and 100M and 1000M network cards are generally a RJ-45 interface. In addition to the interface of the network card, we also often pay attention to whether the NIC supports diskless startup when choosing the NIC. If necessary, also consider whether the NIC supports fibre optic connections.
the purchase of network adapters: According to statistics, the vast majority of the local area network using Ethernet technology, so the emphasis on Ethernet network card as an example, to talk about the purchase of network cards should pay attention to the problem.
the basic functions of network adapters are: data conversion from parallel to serial, assembly and disassembly of packages, network access control, data caching and network signal. Currently, the main 8-bit and 16-bit network card.
In addition, now most of the network card is more than hundred trillion.
The main use of network adapters: to say that the simple point, we surf the internet, chat QQ, questions and answers, and so on, as long as the relationship with the network, all require the function of the NIC. A NIC is a device that connects your computer to a network.
The primary role of the network adapter:
1 It is the host and the Medium bridge equipment
2 to achieve the signal matching between the host and the media
3 Provide data buffering capability
4 Control the function of the data transfer (the network card is responsible for receiving the data packets uploaded over the Internet, after the packet, the data passed on the bus to the local computer; On the other hand, it packs the data on the local computer and sends it to the network.) )