What is a network card?

When one thinks of computers, several things come to mind. An HDD or an SSD, its RAM, or perhaps its CPU and GPU, amongst others. Ever heard of a network interface card, though? If not, read on.  

What are network cards and what do they do?

A network interface card, also simply referred to as a network card, is a hardware component on computers, that connects them to a given network, i.e. the internet. It is a circuit board that provides a dedicated network connection to the computer. The network interface card is also known as a LAN adapter, network adapter, or even a network interface controller. In other words, it allows a computer to send and receive data over a network, and communicate with other devices on the same network.

Types of network cards

Depending on how a network card is incorporated, it can be of two types- internal or external. External network cards can connect to a computer using a PCI Express or USB port.  

Internal network cards are installed directly onto the motherboard, which has a slot for it. It requires network cables to provide network access to the computer. Internal network cards are further divided into two types – Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) connection and Industry Standard Architecture (ISA).

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The ISA cards happen to have been around for far longer than PCI network cards. PCI network cards, in theory, are significantly faster network cards, owing to the fact that they have anywhere between double to quadruple the bit-width as compared to the former, resulting in faster data transfer speeds.