A network controller card is hardware that connects a computer to a LAN or WLAN. There are wired, wireless, built-in, and portable types. Speeds vary depending on the adapter and connection. The type of card needed depends on the situation, such as available ports and network speed.
A network controller card is an internal or external piece of hardware designed to establish and maintain a continuous connection to a local area network (LAN) or wireless local area network (WLAN). There are several types of network cards, including wired, wireless, built-in, and mini or portable. Portable wired and wireless cards are typically plug-and-play, while built-in wired and wireless cards require special network card software to be installed.
A wired network controller card uses an RJ-45 interface port to establish an Ethernet connection to a LAN. In most cases, the LAN itself is connected to the Internet via a digital subscriber line (DSL) or cable modem. The speed of data transfer depends on the speed of the adapter and the speed of the Internet connection. The three most commonly used standards in 2010 are 10BASE-T, which runs at 10 Mbit/s; 100BASE-TX, which runs at 100 Mbit/s; and 1,000BASE-T, which runs at 1000 Mbit/s.
A wireless network controller card relies on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 wireless standards to establish a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz wireless connection to a WLAN. If so, you need to use a wireless router to transmit signals wirelessly between the wireless network adapter and the Internet modem. The three most commonly used standards in 2010 include 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n. The 802.11n standard provides the fastest transmission speed up to 300 Mbps. Note that while some manufacturers claim speeds of 600 Mbps, it is rarely achieved.
An integrated network controller card is installed inside a computer. This card sits in a PCI Express or PCI Express slot, from where it transmits data from the motherboard to the network and vice versa. Note that an integrated network card can provide a wired or wireless connection, depending on the type of technology incorporated. Integrated cards are preferred by desktop users because they provide faster communication between the computer and the network, which in turn means lower latency and faster access speeds.
A portable or mini network controller card connects to a computer externally by a universal serial bus (USB) or FireWire® interface. It also provides a wired or wireless connection. Note that regardless of the speed of your wired or wireless connection, it is limited by the transfer rate of the interface. Regardless, mobile users much prefer mini NICs because they can be easily transported and can also be moved quickly from one laptop to another.
When deciding which type of network controller card to use, analyze the situation carefully. If your network provider does not support 1,000BASE-T or Gigabit speeds, you would not get any benefit from using a Gigabit NIC. Or, if a computer’s PCI slots are already full, it would be pointless to buy an integrated card. Suffice to say, each situation requires a unique solution tailored to the specific details – computer type, network speed, available ports and slots – of the situation.
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