NIC is an acronym for Network interface controller, but it can also be known as a network adapter or LAN network.
It is a piece of computer hardware, used for connecting a computer to a network, either through cables or wirelessly.
Want to know when NIC was first used? See next page.
The networks that a NIC can connect with are Ethernet, WI-FI, Fibre Channel, ATM, FDDI or Token Ring, with the most commonly used of these being the Ethernet, introduced commercially during the 1980s.
Computers that are more modern have an NIC built into the motherboard, whereas earlier designs were normally implemented on expansion cards that could be plugged into a computer bus. It is also now possible to have dual interfaces built into the infrastructure of a motherboard.
