5 Facts About Ethernet Adapters

If you are like most modern humans, you likely use some form of Ethernet adapter on a daily basis. However, you may have little understanding of what an Ethernet adapter is, or how they work. This article will make all clear. Here are five little-known facts about Ethernet converters.

1. You are probably using one right now: As you may know, the most basic example of an adapter is what you use to connect to the Internet if you have a wireless network. In your computer, or possibly, attached to your computer, you have a wireless adapter that converts the wireless signal to the Ethernet signal that your computer operates on.

2. Adapters require a driver to operate: Typically when you use your computer to connect to the Internet, your operating system will automatically install a driver that is compatible with your systems. If this process is not automatic, you may have to go to the manufacturer’s website to download the driver manually. Once the driver is installed and connected to an open port you will be fully connected to your network.

3. There are adapters for computers without an Ethernet port: When wireless networking was first being established, many people owned computers that did not support wireless networking. In order to connect wirelessly, you were required to by wireless cards that connected to their computers to receive and convert the signal from the router. Today, those adapters have come a long way in terms of sophistication and performance.

4. They are not just used to connect to the Internet: Advanced Ethernet adapters are used in a plethora of different applications where there is a need to connect two different types of media. Adapters are used to automate systems and communicate vast amounts of data and information quickly and accurately. Ethernet converters are used in nearly every industry from oil and gas, to medical, to military.

5. They vary based on application, performance, and operating conditions: Adapters can be simple, like the one you use to connect to the Internet, or they can be built for performance and rugged conditions. On the high-end, fiber optic cables are paired and twisted, to provide the highest speed and highest fidelity connection. This type of adapter is what you would commonly find in new Metropolitan Area Networks that are popping up in some cities to allow high speed internet access to all citizens and visitors.

Hopefully after reading this article your eyes have been opened to the complexity and variety of Ethernet cable adapters. They serve a myriad of purposes to help businesses and people transmit data and information in a secure, high-fidelity manner.

For more information about Ethernet adapters and how you can incorporate them into your current operations, click here!