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Re: [Bulk] Re: [OCLUG-Tech] NIC info:

Thanks Brad:

On Thu, 2007-05-17 at 08:30 -0400, Bart Trojanowski wrote:
> * William Case <billlinux [ at ] rogers [ dot ] com> [070516 23:29]:
> > Hi;
> > 
> > I am trying to learn how my Network Interface Card works from the ground
> > up:  
> > 
> > Can anybody recommend a good read or detailed web site?
> <snip>
> > Hardware:  How do the following work?
> > 1) The reception or sending of the electronic signal
> > 2) How is the signal created or read.
> 
> googled for Ethernet electrical specification, and got this:
> 
> http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/usail/external/ethernet/ethernet-guide.html
> http://www.techfest.com/networking/lan/ethernet.htm
> 

Just to underline an irony or beginner's stupidity. I had looked at
those two sites, quickly decided they weren't relevant and moved on.
Because of your advice I returned read more carefully and discovered
they were, in fact, what I wanted.

> > 3) On a diagram or picture, where is the card's cpu, registers and other
> > electronics such as clocks etc.
> > 4) Where are the headers encoded/decoded?  How?
> 
> 99.9% of the time the protocol headers are constructed on the host.  You
> want to read about TCP/IP stacks.
> 
> The other 0.1% of the time you have an expensive NIC with stack offloading
> -- your NIC actually does some of the TCP/IP stack's job.
> 

There are still some bits and pieces I need explained, but now that I
have found two fairly comprehensive start places, I am sure i can chase
the rest down.

Thanks again for your trouble.
-- 
Regards Bill


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