Networking Devices
LAN CARD
LAN CARD Network card (UK: network interface card or NIC also abbreviated
network card) is a card that serves as a bridge from your computer to a computer
network. NIC type in circulation, divided into two types, namely a physical NIC,
and NIC that is logical. Examples of a physical NIC is the NIC Ethernet, Token
Ring, and others, while the NIC that is logical is the loopback adapter and
Dial-up Adapter. Known also as the Network Adapter. Each type of NICs are
numbered addresses called MAC address, which can be static or can be changed by
the user.
Physical NICGenerally in the form of physical NIC cards that can
be plugged into a slot in the motherboard of the computer, which can be either a
card with the ISA bus, PCI bus, EISA bus, MCA bus, or PCI Express bus. In
addition to the form of cards that plug into the motherboard, the physical NIC
can also be in the form of an external card bus card with USB, PCMCIA, serial
bus, parallel bus or Express Card, thus improving mobility (for mobile
users).
Physical NIC
Physical NIC cards are divided into two types, namely:• NIC card with a specific
network media (Media-specific NIC) NIC cards that differentiate into several
types based on the network media being used. An example is an Ethernet NIC,
which may be a Twisted-Pair (UTP or STP), thinnet, or Thicknet, or even
wirelessly (Wireless Ethernet).• NIC card with a specific network architecture
(architecture-specific NIC) NIC cards that differentiate into several types,
according to the network architecture is used. Examples are Ethernet, Token
Ring, and FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface), all of which use a different
NIC. Ethernet NIC cards can be either Ethernet 10 megabits / second, 100
megabits / sec, 1 Gigabit / sec or 10 Gigabit / sec.NIC task is to convert
parallel data stream in the form of computer bus into serial data that can be
transmitted over the network media. The media commonly used, among other UTP
cable Category 5 or Enhanced Category 5 (Cat5e), fiber-optic cable, or radio (if
indeed without cable).Computers can communicate with the NIC by using several
methods, namely the I / O is mapped into memory, Direct Memory Access (DMA), or
a memory to be used together. A parallel data stream will be sent to the NIC
card in advance and stored in memory in the card prior bundled into several
different frames, before they can be transmitted over the network media. The
process of making this frame, will add headers and trailers on the data about to
be sent, which contains the address, signaling, or error-checking information.
Frames will then be converted into electronic pulses (voltage, especially for
copper wires), pulse-modulated pulses of light (especially for fiber-optic
cables), or microwave (if using a radio / wireless networks).NICs that are in
the receiver will process the signals obtained in the form of upside down, and
convert these signals into a stream of bits (for a frame network) and change
these bits into parallel data flow in the recipient's computer bus. Some
functions can be directly owned by the NIC, installed in the firmware, or in the
form of software installed in the operating system.Logical NICLogical NIC NIC is
the type that does not exist physically and use the software fully installed on
the operating system and work as if he is a NIC. Examples of logical NIC device
is a loopback adapter (in the Windows operating system, must be installed
manually or in the UNIX family of operating systems, installed by default, with
the name of the lo interface) and Dial-up adapter (which makes the modem as a
networking tool in the operating system Windows). Logical NIC card is made by
using emulation techniques.
