A '''network interface controller''' ('''NIC''',<!--"Controller" is correct; once upon a time, they might all have been add-in cards, and called "network interface cards", but most of them are probably on the motherboard or in the SoC these days.--> also known as a '''network interface card''',<ref name="Dell"/> '''network adapter''', '''LAN adapter''' or '''physical network interface''',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392944(v=ws.10).aspx|title=Physical Network Interface|publisher=[[Microsoft]]|date=January 7, 2009}}</ref> and by similar terms) is a [[computer hardware]] component that connects a [[computer]] to a [[computer network]].<ref name=networking_01>{{cite web
|title = Networking Basics: Part 1 - Networking Hardware
|author = Posey, Brien M.
|year = 2006
|work = Windowsnetworking.com
|publisher = TechGenix Ltd
|access-date = 2012-06-09
}}</ref>
Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on [[expansion card]]scards that plugged into a [[computer bus]]. The low cost and ubiquity of the [[Ethernet]] standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the [[motherboard]], or is contained into a [[USB]]-connected [[dongle]].
Modern network interface controllers offer advanced features such as [[interrupt]] and [[Direct memory access|DMA]] interfaces to the host processors, support for multiple receive and transmit queues, partitioning into multiple logical interfaces, and on-controller network traffic processing such as the [[TCP offload engine]].
