The network adapter is a printed circuit board that plugs into a slot on the motherboard. It can also be integrated into the motherboard or connected to a computer via a USB connector. There are other options, but these are the most common. You can distinguish the adapter by the characteristic connector designed to connect the network cable connector. Increasingly, there are adapters for network connection using or Wi-Fi technology. The latter is distinguished by the presence of a radio antenna. The purpose of any kind of network adapter is the physical connection of the computer and the transmission medium, as well as the preparation and transfer of data from one device to another.
Installing and configuring the network adapter
Before installing the network adapter, pay attention to its brand, it will be required during the setup process. Physical connection requires access to the motherboard. To do this, you need to disconnect the cover from the system unit.
Next, find the card slot on the motherboard. Often, when doing this, you need to remove the closing metal plates from the back of the system unit in order to bring out the external interface of the adapter. Install the module in the slot, make sure that the cable connector is accessible, and screw the board on for a secure fit. Then put the cover back on system unit. Connect the network cable.
Turn on the PC. After the system boots, a message will appear that a new device has been found. For correct operation, you will need to install a driver that matches the system and brand of network adapter. It is better to download it from the official website of the manufacturer. After that, reboot the system. The network connection icon should appear on the taskbar.
Right-click on the icon and select "Network and Sharing Center". It is here that all network connection settings are made. In particular, go to the "Change adapter settings" menu, after which all available network connections will open.
To change the properties, right-click on the icon of any of them and select "Properties" in the context menu. In addition, the status of each connection is also visible here: “Enabled” or “Disabled”. Connections that are enabled but not working for some reason are crossed out with a red cross. You can also enable or disable the connection (adapter programmatic control) through the context menu.
A network adapter is one of the main components of a computer, because it's hard to even imagine a PC that is not connected to the Internet. Microsoft is aware of this, so support for the vast majority of network cards is already included in the distribution operating system Windows 7. But time and progress do not stand still: almost eight years have passed since the release of Windows 7, new network controllers and even data transfer methods have appeared, and with them new network adapters. The use of such components requires additional settings both at the OS installation stage and during its operation.
Why configure a Windows 7 network card
Change basic settings A network adapter may be needed to expand the range of tasks performed by a network client computer:
- thin WiFi setup in operating conditions with a large number of wireless devices (apartment building, office building);
- installing drivers for a network card that is not supported by the OS out of the box;
- some Internet providers (VPN, pptp, wimax) require additional network settings;
- installation and configuration of extended wireless communication channels using RadioEthernet adapters.
How to find out what kind of network cards are installed in the system
You can find out the presence and number of active network adapters on your PC using one of the following methods: viewing the "Network Adapters" branch in the "Device Manager" system utility or analyzing the contents network connections control panels.
Or open the Device Manager using the command line:
If you have installed software packages for working with a 3G modem, VPN clients or virtual machines, then both the Device Manager and Network Connections will additionally display software network cards created by these programs.
Forced shutdown of such adapters can lead to the most unpredictable consequences, up to the inability to boot the PC.
Video: how to find out the model of your network card
How to enable or disable the network card (including using the BIOS)
For laptops, enabling and disabling network interfaces is available using a key combination, for stationary PCs - using BIOS settings or the Control Panel.
This article will help you quickly answer your questions. Also, you can study the material in full to get a complete understanding of the network setup in Windows 7.
Introduction.
Purchasing an operating system Windows 7, the user must be prepared for the fact that sooner or later he will face the task of setting up the network in the operating system. For some, this task is not difficult. Typically, installing and configuring a network in Windows 7 is the next step immediately after installing Windows 7 ( If you haven't installed Windows 7 yet and aren't quite sure what steps to take, then you should read this section: Installing Windows 7).
The network setup step is required for the following post-installation steps:
- downloading actual distributions of anti-virus programs from the Internet;
- loading latest versions video player, web browser;
- if necessary, downloading from the network drivers for some devices on your computer (if they were not downloaded and installed automatically, or if there are no installation disks);
- use of the XBOX console;
- document exchange and quick access to shared resources multiple computers or laptops. In this case, you need to set up a wired or wireless network in order to use the Internet. As a rule, one computer or laptop serves as a kind of Internet distributor for all other pieces of computer equipment..
The same is true for MAC addresses and subnet masks. All these settings remain the same, they are familiar to users for a long time. Some changes have only affected the interface of the Control Panel and its items, with the help of which the network settings are accessed. Everything else without significant changes. This is another undoubted plus of Windows 7. Users who have previously used Windows XP will be able to understand the new operating system quite easily. Typically, the setting local network on popular operating systems such as Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, starts with a network property configuration component such as "".
This property configuration tool allows the user to select a network location, set up printer and file sharing, and view a network map. You can also monitor the status of all your network connections. It is very convenient and practical.
How and where to open the Network and Sharing Center component.
Before you can use the full functionality to create network settings, you need to find and open it. One of the following actions of your choice will correctly open the active window " Network and Sharing Center»:
As you can see, if you are careful and read everything, then with the search for the "Network and Sharing Center" component, there should not be any problems. It should be noted that in order to expand the ranges of IP addresses used in Windows 7, in addition to the pre-existing IPv4 protocol, a new one was added - IPv6. True, providers have not yet activated it, and when this will happen is currently unknown. Most likely, the creators of Windows 7 played ahead of the curve. 
Figure 1. The illustration shows the Network and Sharing Center window.
What is the network location of the computer.
Understand what is network location”, you need even before you start working with this important component. For all computers, this setting is set automatically the first time they connect to the selected network. This also applies to the firewall and security settings of the network selected for connection. All of them are also configured automatically during the first connection of a computer or laptop to the network.
operating room Windows system 7 supports multiple active profiles at the same time. This allows for the most secure use of multiple network adapters that can be connected to different networks.
By the way, Windows Vista uses the most restrictive firewall profile for all network connections. Perhaps that's why Vista isn't as popular as Windows 7.
There are four main types of network location:
| The first type is the home network. From the very name it becomes clear that this network location is intended for a computer that is used at home. It is also used in networks where all users know each other well. Such computers can not only create, but also join home groups. As a rule, for the convenience of users when using home networks, network discovery is turned on automatically. Home networks provide all computers with quality network access. | |
| The second type is a network of an enterprise or organization. This type of network location also allows you to find the network automatically. The difference from a home network is that in an enterprise network, you cannot join or create a computer to a homegroup. The network is intended exclusively for professional activities in an enterprise, organization or office. This type is called abbreviated (SOHO), that is, it is used in a small office network. | |
| The third type is the public network. Cafes, airports, train stations and other public places - this is where computers use the third type of network location. By default, the ability to join homegroups is disabled in this location. Network discovery is also disabled. Without exaggeration, we can say that this is the most strict arrangement. | |
| The fourth type is a domain network. The domain type of the network location is almost no different from the working network. Except that in the domain type, the network discovery and Windows firewall configuration is determined by group policy. This also applies to the network card. To existing network automatically received the network location type "Domain", the computer only needs to be joined to an Active Directory domain. Only in this case the network can become a domain network. |
Figure 2. Selecting the network location of the computer.Network map.
In order to see the location of all devices included in a particular local network, a network map is used. This is a graphical representation of the devices included in the network and the scheme by which they are connected to each other.
You can see the network map all in the same "Network and Sharing Center" window. True, only the local part of the network card is displayed here. Its layout is directly dependent on the available network connections. In the upper left corner, you can see the display of the computer on which the map is being created. On the left you can see the display of the remaining computers included in the subnet.
Figure 3. An example of a network map.
You can view the network map at any time. True, only for locations such as "Home Network" and "Company Network". If the user is curious to view the maps for the "Domain Network" or "Public Network" locations, they will see a message that the network message has been disabled by default by the administrator. A network administrator can enable mapping through Group Policy.
In Windows 7, not one, but two components are responsible for the operation of the network map. it Link layer(Link Layer Topology Discover Mapper - LLTD Mapper). It is this important component that queries the network for devices to be included in the map.
Network connections.
In the window " Network connections"You can see the entire set of data that the user needs to connect the computer to the Internet, local network or any other computer from the home network.
This data is available for viewing only after installing all the necessary drivers for each network adapter on Windows 7 and after automatically configuring all network connections on a particular local computer or laptop.
There are several simple and affordable ways with which you can easily and quickly open the " Network connections»:
- Opening the window " Network and Sharing Center"and follow the link" Change adapter settings» (see figure 4);
Network and Sharing Center""." href="/upload/nastroika-windows-7/windows-7-nastroika-seti-img-7.png">
Figure 4. Opening the window " Network connections" through " Network and Sharing Center».
- Click the "Start" button and when the menu opens, enter "View Network Connections" in the search field. In the results found, select the application "View Network Connections" ( very convenient way);
- You can also use the classic keyboard shortcut Win+R. This will open the Run dialog. In the "Open" field, which is located in the "Run" dialog box, you must enter the following command: ncpa.cpl or control network connection. Having done this, you need to click the "OK" button.
Figure 5. Network Connections windowWindow " Network and Sharing Center” similar to the Windows XP window. All detailed information about the network connection can be obtained by selecting the "Properties" option for a specific network adapter (see Figure 6). In Windows 7, to configure the network connection in the "Properties" window, you need to select "Internet Protocol Version 4". In the same window, you can also make the necessary settings for gateways, subnet masks, DNS servers, IP addresses, etc. All this information can be obtained from the provider that provides the Internet access service.
Figure 6. Network connection details.
Rename the network adapter.
The developers of Windows 7 made sure that the operating system itself names all network connections by default "Local Area Connection" or another option - "Wireless Network Connection". If a user's computer has more than one network connection, the system also assigns a number to the connection. There are three ways to rename the name of any of the connections you have created.
- First way. Select a network connection and click on the "Rename connection" button located on the toolbar. After entering a new name, press the key Enter;
- The second way. With key F2: press, enter a new name and save using the same key Enter;
- The third way. To rename the network connection selected from the list, right-click on it, select the “Rename” command from the context menu that appears, rename and save the changes using the already familiar key Enter;
Network status.
In addition to the ability to rename the connection, you can also check the status of the network in this window. Using this window, which is called “Network Status”, at any time you can not only view any data about the connection network, but also find out details such as MAC address, IP address and many other useful and interesting information.
There are providers that allow users to access the Internet using the MAC address of the network card. If for some reason the network card has been changed or the entire computer has been replaced, the MAC address will also change, and Internet access will stop. For a new Internet connection, you must set the required physical address (MAC address).
How to see the MAC address of a network card in windows 7?
To view the current MAC address, as well as complete information about the connection, you need to right-click on the local network connection, and then select the “Status” item in the context menu that opens (see Figure 7).
Figure 8. How to change the MAC address of the network card (network adapter).Network diagnostics.
If you encounter a situation where unexpected errors or failures occur in the operation of your network connection, you can resolve them using connection diagnostics. The diagnostic tool can be found in the Network Connections window.
Select window " Troubleshooting”, which, by analyzing the connection status, offers a choice of possible malfunctions and troubleshooting methods. To start diagnostics, you need to right-click on the network connection and select the "Diagnostics" command in the context menu.
Figure 9. Opening the Local Area Connection Troubleshooter.
The second way to start checking the network connection parameters is to select the desired network and click on the "Connection Diagnostics" button. The button can be seen on the toolbar.
In the dialog box that opens, to diagnose the connection, just follow the steps of the troubleshooting wizard. Nothing complicated.
Disabling the network device (network adapter).
Sometimes situations arise when network connection problems are not solved using the troubleshooting wizard, but by simply disconnecting the network adapter from the computer. This can easily be done by doing one of the following:
- Select a network connection and click on the "Disconnect network device" button located on the toolbar;
- Right-click on the network connection and select the "Disable" command in the context menu that appears;
Conclusion.
The article details how to configure, connect and diagnose network connections.
If you have any doubts about your own ability to configure and connect the network, then it is better to seek help from specialists, or read the article carefully again.
Note: in most cases, manually configuring the network adapter is not required, as our network provides automatic TCP / IP settings for computers. Follow this instruction only if there are problems in the computer network.
1. Go to "Control Panel": open the menu "Start" and select the item "Control Panel".
2. If the window does not look like the one shown in the figure below, then switch the view to "Small Icons" selecting the appropriate item in the menu "View". Go to "Network and Sharing Center".
Important!
Don't use unload functions Offloading IPsec Tasks or offload TCP Chimney. These technologies are deprecated in Windows Server 2016 and may adversely affect server and network performance. Additionally, these technologies may not be supported by Microsoft in the future.
For example, enabling segmentation offloading may reduce the maximum sustained throughput of some network adapters due to limited hardware resources. However, if bandwidth reduction would not be a limitation, you should enable offload features even for this type of network adapter.
Note
Some network adapters require offloading to be enabled separately for sending and receiving paths.
Enable Scaling (RSS) for Receive-side Web Servers
RSS can improve web scalability and performance when the number of network adapters is less than the logical processors on the server. When web traffic passes through RSS-enabled network adapters, incoming web requests from different connections can be processed by different CPUs at the same time.
Note that due to the RSS and Hypertext Transfer protocol (HTTP) important load balancing, performance can be significantly degraded if non-RSS-enabled network adapter web traffic is on a server that supports RSS-enabled adapters. In this case, you must use network adapters that support RSS, or disable RSS in the properties window of the network adapter additional properties tab. To determine whether an adapter is RSS-enabled, you can view the RSS information on the properties of the network adapter additional properties tab.
RSS Profiles and RSS Queues
The predefined default RSS profile is NUMA Static, which changes the default behavior of previous versions of the operating system. To get started with RSS profiles, you can review the available profiles to understand when they are useful and how they apply to your network or equipment.
For example, if you open Task Manager and look at the logical processors on the server, they are underutilized by receiving traffic, you can try increasing the number of RSS queues from the default value of 2 to the maximum supported by the network adapter. The network adapter may have settings to change the number of RSS queues in the driver.
Increasing resources for network adapters
For network adapters that allow you to manually configure resources, such as receive and send buffers, you should increase resource allocation.
Some network adapters have small receive buffers to conserve dedicated memory from the host. This leads to packet loss and performance degradation. Therefore, for heavy reception scenarios, it is recommended to increase the receive buffer value to the maximum.
Note
If the network adapter doesn't provide it manually, it either configures them dynamically for resources, or resources are set to a fixed value that cannot be changed.
Enable interrupt control
For interrupt management, some NICs offer different interrupt levels, buffer pooling options (sometimes separate for the receive and transmit buffer), or both.
It is recommended to control interrupts for CPU-bound workloads and consider a balance between host CPU savings and latency and increased host CPU savings due to more interrupts and lower latency. If the NIC does not handle interrupts but does provide pooling buffers, increasing the number of pooled buffers allows buffers to be pooled for sending or receiving, which improves performance.
Performance Tuning for Low Latency Packet Handling
Many network adapters allow settings to optimize the latency caused by the operating system. Latency is the time between processing an incoming packet by a network driver and sending that packet back. This time is usually measured in microseconds. For comparison, the transmission time of packets over long distances is usually measured in milliseconds \ (larger \ order). This setting does not reduce the time spent per packet during transmission.
The following are some suggestions for microsecond networks for performance tuning.
One of the problems that a user may encounter after reinstalling Windows is the lack of a driver for the network adapter (network driver) for a wired or wireless network.
And if there is no driver disk at hand, you will have to look for the driver and download it using another device that has Internet access.
In this article, we will consider an algorithm that will avoid the troubles that may arise after installing the OS.
What is a driver? This is the program by which the computer's operating system communicates with the device's hardware ( motherboard, video card, network card, printer, scanner, MFP, etc.).
Drivers are developed by companies that produce computer parts and peripherals that interact with a PC (for example, office equipment).
Often, modern operating systems (including Windows 7) already have a certain set of drivers that allow you to work with the main components of the computer, we will consider the case when such programs are not available.
The peculiarity of the situation when the network driver is not installed is that it is impossible to use programs for automatic driver installation, since all of them use an Internet connection for their work, and since the network driver is not installed, there is no access to the Internet.
The user, as a rule, encounters the installation of network adapter drivers in the following cases:
1. After buying a new computer and the absence of an installed OS on it.
2. After installing the operating system.
3. After the failure of the network adapter drivers.
To solve the problems that arise in the first case, you need to look for the disks that come with the computer. On the disk with the drivers for the motherboard is what we need.
In the past few years, a trend has clearly formed that involves the rejection of the use of optical disc drives not only among laptop manufacturers, but also desktop PCs.
Users who independently choose the components from which their computer will be assembled also refuse to install a DVD drive.
Advice! We recommend that you download all the necessary drivers (not just network drivers) to a separate directory on your hard drive and/or flash drive. This will avoid situations when, after installing the operating system, you will need to look for a drive or PC (tablet, phone) to download drivers from a disk or the Internet.
Installing the network driver
The driver installation procedure can be conditionally divided into 2 stages: hardware identification and driver installation.
In order to identify manufacturers and specific models of equipment, a coding system for models and brands of computer components was developed.
As a rule, the code for the network adapter is as follows: PCI/VEN_xxxx&DEV_xxxx&SUBSYS_xxxxxx, where VEN_xxxx is the equipment manufacturer's identifier (Vendor ID), DEV_xxxx is the equipment model code (Device ID).
Step 1. Hardware identification
In order to find out the code, click Start, enter "Device Manager" in the search field and go to the appropriate menu.
Next, you need to find the "Network adapters" or "Other devices" submenu and right-click on one of the submenu items, for example, in our case it will be "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller".
Step 2: Install/Update Network Adapter Driver
After we have found out the equipment identifier, we should copy its name (right-click - copy) and enter it in the browser search field. After downloading the necessary program, you can proceed to install it.
Similar actions will be in case of updating the network driver.
To install / update the network adapter driver, you need to go to the "Device Manager" as described earlier. Select the required item and in the context menu, which is available by clicking the right mouse button, select the item "Update drivers ...".
Select "Search for driver software on this computer".
We go to the directory in which we recently downloaded everything we need, using the "Browse" button, click "Next" and wait for the end of the driver installation process.
There is also an opinion that if you update (reinstall) the network driver, you must first uninstall the old one, after which you should install the new one.
Important! To remove an already installed driver, you need to go to the "Device Manager", select the network adapter, right-click and select "Delete" in the context menu. After that, the system will warn that the device driver will be removed, agree by clicking "OK".
Driver Updater by Carambis
If you have a need to search for universal programs that can function on different operating systems: we mean utilities for creating group policies, programs for cleaning the system from viruses and, of course, software for working with OS drivers - the best solution would be to use the Carambis Driver Updater program.
Thanks to Driver Updater, you can not only get the necessary software but good savings too. After all, one purchase of a subscription allows you to connect two computers at once.
As for the process of work, the utility does an excellent job with the tasks. Now you do not need to fix the errors of the connected hardware components on each computer.
Setting automatic search and installing updates now independently updates all devices.
But, if you need to speed up your computer, we recommend using another utility from the same manufacturer - Carambis Cleaner.
Its capabilities:
- Comprehensive optimization of the operating system;
- The ability to delete components and temporary files that are no longer used and are not needed for the OS to work;
- Remove all OS error reports;
- Quick registry cleaning;
- Ability to delete files that the user selects;
- Removal installed programs in the main window of the program with a few clicks.
Remember, files that have been deleted by the program cannot be recovered (unlike the usual deletion procedure using the built-in OS functions). Run diagnostics on your computer several times a month to keep your system in good working order.
How to Install Network Adapter Driver Without Internet Access
Network adapter driver - detailed installation instructions
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