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Posted

I was wondering if you people are a little bit more wise on NIC's then i am, so i was wondering if you could help me out with a couple of questions.

 

Why do you use a Modem for a Wide Area Network, and why do you use a NIC for a Local Area Network?

How do you configure a NIC, what information is required,

 

What are the issues that could be incountered when installing a NIC to a new computer,

 

Sorry i have no idea about NIC's and was wondering if you could help.

 

Cheers Ash

Posted

They usually arent much of a problem to install that i know of. i think windows will detect them.

 

If your using a router you generally wont need a modem, i think modems are for direct connection to the internet. (dial up?)

 

with a router you are connected to the lan, and the router provides internet on your machine through the NIC. Modems use a direct link.

 

sorry if it doesnt make much sense :heh:

Posted

Hm this looks familiar.. :)

 

Why do you use a Modem for a Wide Area Network, and why do you use a NIC for a Local Area Network?

A modem (modulator demodulator) is needed to convert digital data into analogue form to send along the telephone line, and at the other end another modem converts it back to digital. An NIC (Network Interface Card) provides the means of understanding transmitted digital data between computers.

 

How do you configure a NIC, what information is required

This question has a potentially vast answer. I suppose they key things are: network type (ring, star, bus etc), IP address, subnet mask, full/half duplex, and then local things like IRQ (Interrupt Requst) number, which needs to be unique for Windows to identify that piece of hardware. Protocol type is also important, these days TCP/IP is used for pretty much everything.

 

What are the issues that could be encountered when installing a NIC to a new computer

Most of the above, things like DNS settings are also important if you're connecting to the Internet via a LAN. IRQ needs to be unique, if it isn't Windows won't be able to distinguish between the clashing pieces of hardware. These days it's plug and play though so all you need to do is set up the IPs.

Posted

No this is a sneaky way to try and understand networking, got this network book with questions in, but is useless at explaining about what NIC's are

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