The Network The figure to the right represents a typical home or office local area network (LAN). It consists of clients (workstations, tablets, laptops, TV, and phone), servers (file, database, web, application, print), and network devices (router, switch, access point, modem, bridge) both wired and wireless. A device on the network connects to it using a network interface cards (NIC). The most common of these are the Ethernet NIC for wired devices and the Wave NIC for wireless devices. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802 standard covers local area network (LAN) and metropolitan area network (MAN) network standards. For Ethernet IEEE 802.3 standards apply and 802.11 standards apply to Wave (WiFi) technologies. Standards, in general, are a twin edge sword. On one hand devices from multiple manufacturers will work with each other so long as they comply with the 802 standard. On the other hand, proprietary techniques used in some devices may provide benefits not available under the standard but will only work with other devices from the same manufacturer using the same proprietary technologies. This leaves the consumer with a choice of embracing a standard with a multitude of manufacturers and perhaps a less capable device or being tied to a single manufacturer with possibly a superior device.