Network hardware: NIC, MAC, IP and routers
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The teaching part (1 min) is free to watch. A free account opens the whole lecture: 6 practice questions, 2 real past-paper questions with the answers explained, the mistakes that lose marks, the full-marks tip, a one-card summary and a quick quiz.
What this lecture covers
- Which device is which?
- The network interface card
- What else does a NIC do?
Read the transcript of the teaching part
Last time
Before we start: last time, in Secondary storage, you learned these points. Here they are again on one card. Keep them in mind, because today builds on them.
Which device is which?
Your home wifi has a phone, a laptop and a television all joined at once. When a web page arrives, how does it reach the right device? Every device has a network interface card, and two kinds of address. Plus a router that moves data between networks.
The network interface card
A network interface card, the NIC, lets a device connect to a network. The connection can be wired, with a cable, or wireless. It sends data to the network, and receives data from the network. The manufacturer gives every NIC its own unique MAC address.
What else does a NIC do?
The NIC provides the physical connection to the network. It converts computer data into a form that can be transmitted over the network. It also converts network data back into a form the computer understands. And the device is given an IP address when its NIC connects to a network.
How often it comes up
The whole chapter: Network Hardware.
Chapter 3.4: Network hardware
- Network hardware: NIC, MAC, IP and routers 6 min
Also for IGCSE Computer Science 0478
Which topics come up most in IGCSE Computer Science 0478 past papers, counted from every paper since 2004: Paper 1 topic frequency, Paper 2 topic frequency.