The Network Interface Controller (“NIC”) is the component that connects a computer to a network. You may hear of it referred to as a Network Interface Card as a result of the fact that it was most often an expansion card. More often than not these days the NIC is built into, or integrated with, the motherboard.
In this post:
1. Wired
The RJ45 of an ethernet cable plugs into the port of the NIC with the other end of the ethernet cable most likely plugging into a switch or a router. There are usually green indicator LED‘s that light up to indicate connectivity and flicker to indicate data transfer.
The IEEE 802.11 standard provide the basis for wireless network products using the Wi-Fi brand and are the world’s most widely used wireless computer networking standards. [2]
2. Wireless
Alternatively, an NIC connects wirelessly to some kind of Wi-fi network. In this case, the NIC will be rated as IEEE 802.11
3. MAC Address
A Media Access Control (“MAC”) address is a unique identifier assigned to an NIC for use as a network address in communications within a network segment.
Unlike an IP address which can be changed, the MAC address is supposedly “burned into” the hardware component.
References:
- MAC address – Wikipedia (2023). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address (Accessed: 17 June 2023).
- IEEE 802.11 – Wikipedia (2023). Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11 (Accessed: 4 July 2023).