Talk:Network interface controller

Is not "network interface card" different from "network interface controller" ?

I am not expert of NICs but i see that although N.I.Controller links here, this topic is mostly related with network interface cards. I supposed that there were some references to the productors of NIController. For example, National semiconductor's DP8390D/NS32490D. Am i wrong?

I won't claim to be an expert either, but I imagine that 'Network Interface Card' refers to a dedicated expansion card, which might be installed via a PCI slot. If that is the case, then a Network Interface Controller would likely be a broader term used to describe any component that performs similar functions, including those directly installed onto the motherboard, or integrated into the chipset. However, as I implied, the above is entirely speculation and my comment should not be regarded as fact. Needles-Kane 22:47, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

NIC is actually Network Interface Controller (hence why you get the term NIC card, it's not a case of RAS syndrome) however popular misuse of it as Network Interface Card has eclipsed the original meaning and the controller aspect has all but been forgotten. 82.36.238.48 01:54, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

If that's true, should the article be renamed Network interface controller card? It is confusing for an article titled Network interface controller to start out with "A network interface card (NIC) is a hardware device..." --Kvng (talk) 00:08, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Lead has been reworked to align with title. ~Kvng (talk) 14:41, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

data storage networks

This wiki article is Ethernet-centric/biased, and the main text should be extended/expanded to deal with other networks/protocols, which also share the abbreviation NIC.

Although probably one of the most common networks/protocols is Ethernet, other forms of network also exist and persist.

In particular, there are data storage networks/protocols, which sometimes also use the abbreviation NIC. (See the related term/wiki article on Host (Bus) Adapter (HBA)). 66.155.23.67 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:14, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Backdoors

I have removed the following discussion of NICs with backdoors as I don't see evidence that this academic proposal was ever built. Maybe the NSA has built them... ~Kvng (talk) 17:57, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

Some NICs support transmit and receive queues without kernel support allowing the NIC to execute even when the functionality of the operating system of a critical system has been severely compromised. Those NICs support:

1. Accessing local and remote memory without involving the remote CPU.
2. Accessing local and remote I/O devices without involving local/remote CPU. This capability is supported by device-to-device communication over the I/O bus, present in switched-based I/O interconnects.
3. Controlling access to local resources such as control registers and memory.

References

Dlink removed

It said Dlink was removed because there was already 7 manufacturers. There are more than 7 manufacturers of NICs, and that page is just a template that can be added too. Vandals.... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.205.44.26 (talk) 03:00, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

If you want to edit Template:Infobox computer hardware to support more than 7 manufacturers, go ahead. Until it's edited to do so, adding additional manufacturers will only affect the source code to the page; it won't affect what's displayed on the page, as the additional manufacturers will be ignored by the template - that can easily be demonstrated by adding a "manuf8 = " entry to it and then previewing the page. Guy Harris (talk) 03:17, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

""Network interface" redirects here" - so what page describes the loopback interface?

The network interface page used to say

In computing, a network interface is a software or hardware interface between two pieces of equipment or protocol layers in a computer network.

which covers interfaces such as the loopback interface and various other interfaces that connect to non-physical networks ("software or hardware interface"). What page covers those now? Guy Harris (talk) 22:38, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

Loopback § Virtual loopback interface (accessible through Loopback interface redirect). ~Kvng (talk) 23:10, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

That covers the loopback interface, but not other such interfaces. Virtual network interface covers that. Should network interface be a page that mentions the general concept and then refers both to network interface controllers and virtual network interfaces, should it be a disambiguation page that points to both, or should this page have a hatnote saying "Network interface redirects here. For network interfaces not associated with networking hardware, see virtual network interface." or something such as that? Guy Harris (talk) 05:00, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Now that we've flushed all of this out, I'm fine with restoring Network interface as a DAB listing Network interface controller, Loopback interface, Virtual network interface and Network interface device. I don't think we should have Network interface as a broad-topic article. ~Kvng (talk) 14:30, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Done. Guy Harris (talk) 21:40, 21 October 2021 (UTC)

Thanks also for working out the incoming links. I should have looked at those when I redirected. It was not quite as cut and dried as I had assumed. ~Kvng (talk) 15:01, 24 October 2021 (UTC)