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TechKnowSurge Catalog Videos DEMO: NIC
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DEMO: NIC

A network interface card (NIC) creates the connection between a device and a network, and Windows exposes its properties—including MAC address, IP version, speed, and connectivity status—through the Network Connections interface.

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About this video

A network interface card (NIC) is the hardware component that connects a device to a network, and every NIC has both a physical presence inside the machine and a corresponding software representation within the operating system. On Windows, those software interfaces are accessible through the Network Connections panel, which can be reached directly by searching from the Start menu. The panel lists every interface present on the device—Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi adapters, Bluetooth connections, and others—giving a clear picture of the networking hardware available on that system. Selecting an active interface surfaces a range of useful technical details. Status information shows whether the connection has internet access, how long the interface has been up, and the current link speed. Drilling into the details view exposes the physical address of the adapter, commonly referred to as the MAC address or burned-in address—a hardware-level identifier unique to that NIC. An assigned IPv4 address is also displayed here, representing the logical address the device uses to communicate on the network. MAC addresses and IP addresses serve distinct but complementary roles in network communication, and understanding where to locate them on a live system is an important first step before exploring how they function. The Network Connections interface provides a practical, hands-on way to connect abstract networking concepts to real hardware and configuration data on any Windows machine.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Network Interface Card (NIC)

Aligned to

Cisco CCNA
1.10 Verify IP parameters for Client OS
CompTIA A+ Core 2
1.6 Given a scenario, configure Microsoft Windows networking on a client desktop
Cisco CCST Networking
3.4 Demonstrate how to set up and check network connectivity
Cisco CCST IT
3.3 Examine basic end-device connectivity to the network

Key terms

Network Interface Card
NIC
A hardware component that connects a computer to a network.
Media Access Control
MAC
A sublayer of the Data Link layer that controls how devices on a network gain access to a medium and transmit data.
IP Address
A numerical label assigned to each device connected to a network that uses the Internet Protocol.
Network Connections
A Windows utility that displays and manages the network interfaces available on a system, including their status and configuration details.

Transcript

Our network interface card is our interface to the network, and we can plug into the rest of the network with it. But what does it look like on our computer?

On a Windows machine, if I go to the Windows button and type in network connections and hit enter, it pops up with Network Connections. There I can see all of the different interfaces that I have. I have a Bluetooth one, I have two Ethernets on this laptop, and then I have a Wi-Fi.

I'm going to look at the one that's actually live. I'm just going to double-click to open this up, and then I can see some details with it. It says whether it has access to the internet or not, and it does have connectivity from an IP version 4 standpoint. It says that it's enabled, how long it's been up, and it tells the speed. If I click Details, I actually get more information.

One of the things I have there is the physical address. We also call this the burned-in address, or a MAC address. That is the address that it has on this Ethernet connection. It also has an IP version 4 address. We're going to get more into a MAC address and an IP address, but for now, we actually have an interface, a software interface, on our computer.

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