Network Interface Cards (NIC)

A Network Interface Card (NIC) provides the hardware interface between a computer and a network. A NIC technically is network adapter hardware in the form factor of an add-in card. Networked computers communicate with each other using a given protocol or agreed-upon language for transmitting data packets between the different machines, known as nodes. The network interface card acts as the liaison for the machine to both send and receive data on the LAN.
Some NIC cards work with wired connections while others are wireless. Most NICs support either wired Ethernet or WiFi wireless standards. In new computers, many NICs are now pre-installed by the manufacturer. NICs can be differentiated by their type of connectivity to the computer itself.

- 10/100 Ethernet : These cards are networking cards that are used most frequently in the home or small office setting. They are capable of speeds up to 10 or 100 megabits per second.
- Gigabit Ethernet :These NICs provide network transfer speeds of up to one Gigabit per second.
- Fiber Optics : These NICs use fiber optic cabling to reach speeds of 10 gigabits per second currently, with a specification under review to push this limit to 100 gigabits per second.
- Wireless NICs : These NICs provide the same networking capabilities as their wired counterparts, however, they have their own transfer capabilities. Speeds of 54 Mb/s are the most commonly available to wireless NICs without teaming several NICs together to combine bandwidths.
- Wireless Dongles : There is a wireless networking device used by individual machines that have access to a main computer that is connected to a wireless router. This wireless router allows the user to install wireless dongles instead of entire routers with each additional machine on the network.