How do network cards work?

JJBladester

My question is "How do network cards work?"

Here's what I think I know. Am I wrong anywhere and am I missing anything?

It is the network driver that performs LLC to basically flag a packet/datagram as being IP/IPX/etc..., right? So LLC is performed in software on the host device? How does the operating system hand off an IP packet to the network card's driver to get the packet to the network card?

Network cards work at OSI layer 2 because they have MAC addresses and can append that information into the layer 2 frame (source/destination MACs). Network cards also work at OSI layer 1 because they take the frames and encode them onto the physical medium.

Is the ARP table stored on RAM within the NIC or does the NIC pass MACs it knows about through ARP announcements to the operating system for the operating system to keep track of?

I have heard of the TCP/IP "stack". Where in Windows or any other operating system is this "stack" and how does one access it?