What is Network Interface Card

Network interface cards is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. To connect to a network, a PC must have a NIC. NICs can be built into the motherboard of the computer; can be connected through a USB, PC Card, CompactFlash or FireWire port; or can be an internal adaptor card that is installed into one of the computer's expansion slots. NICs are available that can connect to either wired or wireless networks.

Every Ethernet network controller has a unique 48-bit serial number called a MAC address, which is stored in read-only memory. Every computer on an Ethernet network must have at least one controller. No two NICs will share the same address. Because NIC vendors purchase blocks of address from  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and assign a unique address to each NIC at the time of manufacture.

The NIC allows computers to communicate over a computer network. It is both an OSI layer 1 (physical layer) and layer 2 (data link layer) device, as it provides physical access to a networking medium and provides a low-level addressing system through the use of MAC addresses. It allows users to connect to each other either by using cables or wirelessly.

Disaster recovery

Disaster recovery is a matter of ensuring that you can help the company recover from any kind of disaster. When preparing for disaster, you need to make sure that your disaster recovery plan includes backup and restore plans, contact information for product vendors, and step-by-step instructions on how to recover each part of your information systems.

The disaster recovery plan should contain detailed steps for recovering from any kind of data loss or physical disaster. The step-by-step plan should contain the location of backup tapes, specify which tapes to restore in different scenarios, and list the steps for rebuilding servers, including detailed information on what to do when a disk fails and how to replace and rebuild the data.

A number of disaster recovery documents overlook key elements such as location of software and CD keys needed to rebuild the system. Be sure that contact information for hardware and software vendors is included in the plan so that if you need to replace an item such as a disk you can contact the vendor.
             Along with detailed recovery steps, a disaster recovery plan should contain detailed information on backup and restore strategies, offsite storage, hot and cold spares, and hot and cold sites.