Click Start. Right click Computer.

Understanding Local Area Networking | 7 c. Select Manage. This should display the Computer Management console window. d. Click Device Manager. e. Click the plus ⫹ sign to expand the Network adapters category, as shown in Figure 1-6. Figure 1-6 Device Manager with the Network adapters category expanded

f. Right-click the network adapter and select Properties. This will display a window

similar to Figure 1-7. Figure 1-7 Properties window of an Intel network adapter 8 | Lesson 1 6. Next, take a look at the configured link speed for the network adapter. To do this, click on the Link Speed tab within the Properties page. This might have a slightly different name depending on the version or brand of network adapter in your computer. The resulting page should be similar to Figure 1-8. You can tell that the card in Figure 1-8 is active if the Link Status field has a green light. It also indicates that the card is connected at 1 Gbps gigabits per second and has negotiated a full duplex connection. Full duplex means that the network card can send and receive data simultaneously. In the Speed and Duplex drop down menu, we can select from other speeds, including 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps, and we can also select half duplex, which means that the network adapter will send and receive data but not at the same time. Full duplex is the superior connection, as long as your central connecting device supports it. Effectively, a full duplex connection can transceive transmit and receive twice as much information per second as a half duplex connection. So, to meet the requirements of our original scenario, we would probably want our client computers to connect at 1 Gbps as well as utilize full duplex negotiations.

7. Finally, every network adapter will have a logical name. By default, the network

adapter is known as the Local Area Connection, although you can change the name if you desire. This Local Area Connection has its own properties page and status page. To view these:

a. Click Start.

b. Right click Network and select Properties. This will display the Network and

Sharing Center window. If you don’t have the Network option in your Start menu, you can add it from the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, which can be accessed by right clicking the taskbar and selecting Properties. An alternate way to access the Network and Sharing Center is to go to Start Control Panel Network and Internet. Once in the Network and Internet window, select the Network and Sharing Center link.

c. Click Change adapter settings. This will bring up the Network Connections

window. Navigation to this window will be slightly different in other versions of Windows.

d. In the Network Connections window, you should see the Local Area Connection

icon. Right click the icon and select Properties. Doing this should display the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 1-9. Figure 1-8 Link speed of network adapter A network adapter is only as fast as the network it connects to TAKE NOTE