Network cards: What are they, what are they for and what types of these cards exist?

You know how your computer gets connected to the internet? Have you built a computer to parts and can’t establish a connection? Do you know what is the network card?

these pieces they are usually the great forgotten of the equipment for reasons such as that they are integrated, we work with “amplifying routers” (which are actually also network cards, although we do not know it). However, whether in one format or another, these are essential if we want our teams todesktop, portable, large or small, connect to a network.

You have no idea what we’re talking about? Do you want to know more about them? Do you want to know how to improve your connection by buying the most suitable one? We are going to tell you many things about this piece, from what its function is to how it works, going through which are the best or what types there are, so that you can know absolutely everything and, with this information, decide if it is worth getting one. new more capable

Network card: What are these cards and what are they used for?

The network card, network card or, similar but not exactly the same, network adapteris a hardware part software that is installed or connected to computers. With her, this internet connection is provided. This is not done because it has a signal but because this element is in charge of work for the computer to communicate with the network provider.

Thus, we are talking about a part, such as a graphics card or RAM memory, that includes a specific operating system, a unique design and controllers that make such communication possible.

The elements that cannot be missing in this piece are the connector that goes to the slot, in charge of data transmission, the card itself (the chip), the ports and the retaining plate.

What are the main functions and characteristics of a network card or adapter?

We are going to see, point by point, what this piece of computer is for, what it is like or what its characteristics are and, of course, how it works.

Network card features

The function of this piece is to act as a channel for enable communication between the equipment to which it is connected and another device capable of providing this connection to a network. He acts as a mediator between both parties (we will see how he does it later). It does this by sending impulses, receiving a response and transforming it into a language that the team it belongs to can understand.

In other words, makes the device to which it is connected to be able to connect to the internet by communicating with an element that provides it.

A) Yes, talk to the computer and also to the router or other device that provides network; have a two-way conversation making requests and giving answers.

Characteristic

As for what they include or what they are like, we have to:

• Everyone will have their own MAC address imprinted on your body.
• A connection to a network involves the allocation of an IP address with which we will be identified. This is a set of numbers separated by dots. If the network is local, the address will be private, while if it is public, the IP will also be private.
• The functioning of the network card can be seen hindered by the firewall; check it!
• Jumbo-Frame is an essential characteristic for those who are going to transmit huge amounts of datathat is, if your board has 1 Gbps or more.
• exist different standards with which each board may or may not be compatible and that suppose some or other characteristics of connection.
• There are special cards designed to create virtual networks; They require compatibility with IEEE802.1q.
• if you are looking for one quality in your transmissionsfor example, if you stream professionally, you don’t want to miss out on using the standard IEEE802.1p.
• Others refer to speed and coverage and we will see them later (on the types of existing network adapters).
• The promised speed will not be what you will ever achieve, that is, what the card gives us is a theoretical figure that we will never reach, since the different conditions will reduce it slowly.
• The full duplex support double the speed.
• They can count on status indicators that will serve to tell us what happens to him at all times.

How does a network card work?

This hardware item works by interpreting digital signals sent to it by the equipment to which it is connected to find electrical impulses capable of moving in cable.

it starts sending a signal to the networkwhich is produced by middle of a single voltageThere must be a port that makes the connection with another connector for the data to be sent. messages by encoding electrical signals. Backwill receive certain electrical impulses, being able to convert them into machine language.

Each signal is divided into X number of parts that are identical, which is produced by what we call “clock mechanism“. Pulses are emitted regularly, giving a uniform channel capable of working the signal to split it all identically. This process is called a voltage change. According to the voltage in which the clock pulse has been cut, the signal is converted to a 0 or a 1.

This way in which the transformation is carried out can vary and we give, as is logical, with points positive and negative in each of the three ways in which this is possible:

• NRZ method. A crossing occurs between the clock signal lines, perpendicularly, giving a 1 as a result when the horizontal is high and a 0 when it is low.
• NRZ-I method. In this case, we have that the work starts with a base 0. If the high horizontal signal line hits a vertical clock line, the number is maintained. When the one that crosses is a low, it is changed to the opposite.
• Manchester Method. In this case, 0 occurs when the signal drops in voltage and 1 when the reverse occurs.

For this to happen, it all has to start with communication between the board and the computer. This occurs in the following way:

• We start our team (the operating system really).
• This causes a checking hardware items involved in the early operation of the computer, including this board.
• The operating system is responsible for charging the network service from which the card “feeds”.
• This service will perform automatic configuration check, known as DHCP. It can also be achieved manually using a fixed IP address.
• The next step will be sending confirmation to our router, through a simple data packet.
• If it has a network connection, a positive response is given and connection is made possible.

In case this does not happen, or if it is the first time If you connect one to your computer and, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work this way (it would be very rare), you’d just have to enable it. First check if it works properly. We do this as follows:

• Going to “Start“.
• Now type, in your search bar “Control Panel“.
• Click on the option with the same text.
• Click on the menu “Security system“.
• Now do the same by clicking on “Device administrator“. This option is located in the area on the left.
• hit the little arrow what’s to the left of “network adapters“.
• Everything you have installed on your computer in this regard will be displayed. Obviously, if it does not appear the card you are looking for is because There was a problem installing and you must do it again.
• Assuming that your adapter appears, to check its operation, do right click.
• Now hit “Properties“.

In the “General” tab you will be told if it is working correctly or if there is an error.

If you are prompted with any mistake, you can search for the corresponding solution. We suggest you resort, in any case, and before going crazy looking, to enable the adapter just in case. For it:

• Go to “Start“.
• Type again “Control Panel” at his bar.
• Enter the menu of “Network and Internet“.
• In the zone of “Network and Resource Center“, click on “View network computers and devices“.
• If this is your first time here, you may see a message telling you that items are hidden. You just have to click on “Enable” and these will appear.
• Beam right click on the adapter in question.
• Among the options, the one you should press is “Enable” or “Enable Internet connectivity”.

What types of network cards are there and how are they different?

These plates are classified, mainly, according to the way in which they are connected to the network. Thus, we find the Token Ring, the ARCANET, the Ethernet, the WiFi and the fiber optic ones.

token ring

They include a old network architecture which, due to improvements in the sector, has practically fallen into disuse in conventional computers. This is because they are still expensive despite offering a minimum speed, incompatible with the current needs of the user.

The connector used is DB-9, 25-pin, 9-contact, initially. Later they were redesigned to adapt to the ethernet socket; The ones known as MAU and NIC did it.

ARCNET

Also in practical disuse, they use a BNC connector (of coaxial cable) at first and the RJ-45 ports years later.

Ethernet

Are the standard today, always going, of course, to the most modern and worked models. The connections used are both RL-45typical of Ethernet, such as BNC, AUI, MII and GMII. Its development goes through incorporation of the braided cable to make up for the deficiencies of the coaxial, when we clearly saw that the trend was the RJ-45 but also the BNC.

Gigabit networks and the use of more than one computer per home are the elements that make the RJ.45 ports of the cards multiply, seeing up to 4 of them for each one.

Of course, over the years they have been improving the speed and currently we find those that go from 10 Mbit/s to 10 Gigabit/s, which only work with high-frequency twisted cable.

Of course, you should always know that the speeds offered are theoretical, so you will never reach them, even in optimal conditions. Both these and the previous ones require wiring, which goes to our router.

Wifi

Its main characteristic is that do not require the use of cables to get a connection to the network but they do it through waves. They are the ones that allow, of course, that laptops can be connected to the networks of a library or a bar.

These are very diverse and generally are subclassified based on the standard to which they have been adjusted. These are:

• 802.11b. It is the most popular standard. It has a theoretical transmission of 11 Mbits although this is actually about 4 Mbits. The distance they cover is 100 meters in a straight line and without obstacles.
• 802.11g. Its theoretical transmission is 54 Mbits. We see that they actually transmit at about 20 Mbits
• 802.11n. They are well above the previous ones, with theoretical speeds of 600 Mbits in 40 MHz channels and real speeds of up to 100 Mbits in optimal conditions.

Optical fiber

They are the fastest, as you can imagine. However, its main characteristic is in the method of getting the signal, which is given by light pulses. This allows the data to be transmitted over a greater distance, which means that it travels a space in much less time than in the previous cases.

The 5 best current network cards to buy at cheap prices

Of course, after I have given you this information it is possible that you have decided to renew yours becauseas you have been able to verify, not all are the same.

Thus, you will surely be interested in us leaving you with some good recommendations to buy a network card according to your needs:

ASUS PCE-AC56

The speed reached by this model is 1.3Gbps in optimal conditions. It is an element, in this case, Dual-band via Broadcom TurboQAM. In addition, it has three antennas that will give strength and stability to the signal, something essential if we have the router far away and we want to squeeze the connection and we need a distant reception but without giving up a good speed. It is compatible with Windows in 64 bits.

D-Link DGE-528T

This is attached to PCI 2.1 and PCI 2.2 slots ytwork with type adapters Ethernet. connect to computer directly using a gigabit-switch

The speeds that we handle in this case go from 10 to 1000 Mbps. It works in an optimal bandwidth that makes this speed, although it is the lowest offered by the models on this list, more than enough for the vast majority of users. The packages Jumbo Frames supported are up to 7K. Its compatibility part of Windows 98so it is ideal for nostalgics.

StarTech PEX10000SFPI

Thanks to its reach 10GbE in SPF+ we can say that it is, without a doubt, a network card designed to be used with a fiber optic connection. indicate that, in full duplex mode, the speed reaches 20Gbps. It has a design that makes it a specific complement for boxes with PCI-E X8 slots. You have it available with one or two open SPF ports. Your chip is Intel 82599, compatible with most systems current operating systems, from Linux 2.6.24 or Windows 7.

StarTech ST20000SPEXI

Reaches the same speed as before, which is why, of course, it is also intended for use on high-speed networks. has the chip Intel X540which is very attractive because it incorporates functions such as PXE boot, jumbo branches, virtualization, Auto MDIX or LAN tagging. Its format is PCI-E 4X and we see that it has two brackets to expand compatibility in low or high cabinets.

UGreen PCI Express

Its interface is PCI Express slot 1 with Windows compatible Realtek RTL8111G chip from version 7 to the latest update of Windows 10. It has a small size that makes it compatible with ATX or ITX casesto which it adapts with its 8 and 12 cm supports.

Its maximum speed is 2000mbpx if we put it to work in full duplex. This is halved in half-duplex. It is interesting to know that this adapts to both circumstances automatically. It includes 9K jumbo frames, MDIX autocorrect, crossover detection, Wake on LAN reset, or 802.1Q VLAN tagging.