Computer Networking: What is a NIC Card?

A network interface card is also known as a NIC card and is used to allow a computer to communication on a network or to and from the Internet. Computers that are networked together will use a common protocol in order to exchange data packets between each other with their respective network interface cards acting as the go-betweens for sending and receiving the information on the network. The most common network protocol in use at home and in the work-force is the Ethernet standard networking protocol.

Common Networking Protocols

The most popular networking protocol in use today is the IEEE 802.3 or ethernet standard. When computers are networked on the same local area network or LAN, they will use the same commication infrastructure on the NIC card. Although the ethernet standard is most prevelant, the token ring network can be found in use in academic and research circles. The ATM protocol is also used to connect LAN's of different protocols together into larger overall nodes of computers.

What Do NIC Cards Do?

Your computer's NIC card is normally installed on a slot inside of your computer and is hard wired with a MAC address (Media Acess Control) address for you computer to use for communicating to and from a network. The MAC address for a NIC card is assigned to the card when it is being built and can not be changed after the card goes into production. Control of MAC addresses is regulated so there should never be two NIC CARDs with the same MAC address. NIC Cards normally have an Ethernet plug or jack on the back of the card in order to plug in to a modem, hub, or switch for the computer to communicate with the network. More recently, NIC cards have been designed to connected to networks via wireless connection. Most computers sold on the market now come with both a wired and wireless NIC card in order to enable the consumer to be able to get online as easily as possible. The latest generation of network connectivity for NIC cards is the newer wireless 3G technology that has been more popular for use with mobile phones.