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Question

Network controller question

Oct 6, 2011 8:50PM PDT

Hi everybody,
I have to help my gf write something about network controllers. However, since I know almost nothing about it I have checked the Internet and the first result for "network controller" is Wikipedia but for "Network interface controller" or "Network Interface card". This confuses me so I wanted to ask if network controller and network interface card are the same?
Thank you in advance

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: network controller question
Oct 6, 2011 9:01PM PDT

Alas, one of the unwritten policies in this forum is to never help with homework assignments for school. It's our experience that students learn much more from making them themselves than from just copying our answers. Either there is info on the subject in her course material (and then she should use that) or the intention of the assignment is for her to research the subject herself using the technical literature in the school library or the internet.

And it might be better if you followed the same principle. Then you could learn about network controllers from your gf's work.

Kees

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Re:
Oct 6, 2011 9:41PM PDT

All I can say is sorry for asking. A simple YES or NO would be enough and at least it would point me to the right direction. I trust Wikipedia, but in this case I am not sure. This forum comes as the second search result for "network controller" so I thought I would get an answer here. I am not looking for detailed explanation on both terms, I am not asking you to point me to resources, I just ask if they are the same. So, sorry again.

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Answer
Maybe not complete but maybe a start
Oct 6, 2011 10:05PM PDT

You'll need to, as mentioned, have the student do the major research but consider this. A network interface "card" is a piece of hardware containing a number of components. In PCs and some laptops, the cards can be removed, replaced, etc. Controllers tend to be subsystems of the larger hardware device. You'll have a motherboard that is a piece of hardware. It will have chipsets and controllers for what attaches to it. The question is a bit of a fuzzy one and the two terms are often used interchangeably. Hope that helps.

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Answer
Re: Network controller question
Oct 10, 2011 1:14PM PDT

Two websites that may be helpful for this and any other Information Technology (I.T.) term are:
http://www.webopedia.com/
(I did not see an immediately help term here...)