interfaceterminologyadapterlaniphelper

Whats the difference between an adapter and a network interface?

Having a hard time understanding the MSDN documentation on the IP Helper Functions. Whats the difference between an adapter and a network interface?

Solution

  • An "Adapter" is a piece of hardware.

    A "network interface" is a software construct.

    Usually, there is one network interface per adapter.

    But there may be network interfaces which are not from an adapter.

    And there may be multiple interfaces per adapter.