The problem was what both of you pointed out. Firefox was requesting a favicon.ico directly after I made my on or off request so there was a request where the program saw 'on' from favicON.ico and thought it needed to turn the light on right after I clicked on or off which is why it was always going back on.
Here is a generalized version of the code I modified from the program that zoomkat so generously shared with me:
//zoomkat 4-1-12 (modified by durkinnj 12-20-12)
//simple pin control through html
//for use with IDE 1.0
//open serial monitor to see what the arduino receives
//use the \ slash to escape the " in the html, or use ' instead of "
//address will look like http://192.168.0.80 when submitted
//for use with W5100 based ethernet shields
//modified to control an LED (on pin 5) but can be applied to a number of
//applications which displays updated status of LED etc.
#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>
byte mac[] = { 0xDE, 0xAD, 0xBE, 0xEF, 0xFE, 0xED }; //physical mac address
byte ip[] = { 192, 168, 0, 80 }; // ip in lan // this may be changed if necessary
//byte gateway[] = { 192, 168, 1, 1 }; // internet access via router //not needed
//byte subnet[] = { 255, 255, 255, 0 }; //subnet mask //not needed
EthernetServer server(80); //server port
boolean led = false; //led status
String readString;
//////////////////////
void setup(){
pinMode(5, OUTPUT); //pin selected to control
//start Ethernet
Ethernet.begin(mac, ip);
server.begin();
//enable serial data print
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("Server/ pin 5 test 1.0"); // so I can keep track of what is loaded
}
void loop(){
// Create a client connection
EthernetClient client = server.available();
if (client) {
while (client.connected()) {
if (client.available()) {
char c = client.read();
//read char by char HTTP request
if (readString.length() < 100) {
//store characters to string
readString += c;
//Serial.print(c);
}
//if HTTP request has ended
if (c == '\n') {
///////////////////// control arduino pin
if(readString.indexOf("ledon") >0)//checks for on
{
digitalWrite(5, HIGH); // set pin 5 high
led = true;
Serial.println("Led On");
}
if(readString.indexOf("ledoff") >0)//checks for off
{
digitalWrite(5, LOW); // set pin 5 low
led = false;
Serial.println("Led Off");
}
///////////////
Serial.println(readString); //print to serial monitor for debuging
client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK"); //send new page
client.println("Content-Type: text/html");
client.println();
client.println("<HTML>");
client.println("<HEAD>");
client.println("<META HTTP-EQUIV='refresh' CONTENT='5'>");
client.println("<TITLE>CARduino</TITLE>");
client.println("</HEAD>");
client.println("<BODY>");
client.println("<h1 style='text-align:center;font-size:70px;'>LED Control Center
</h1>");
if(led == false){
client.println("<div style='padding-left:25px;font-size:50px;display:inline;'>LED Status: OFF</div><a href='/?ledon'><div style='font-size:60px;display:inline;padding-left:100px;'><button type='submit'><div style='font-size:60px;'>Turn On</div></button></div></a>"); }
else {
client.println("<div style='padding-left:25px;font-size:50px;display:inline;'>LED Status: ON </div><a href='/?ledoff'><div style='font-size:60px;display:inline;padding-left:100px;'><button type='submit'><div style='font-size:60px;'>Turn Off</div></button></div></a>"); }
client.println("</BODY>");
client.println("</HTML>");
delay(1);
//stopping client
client.stop();
//clearing string for next read
readString="";
}
}
}
}
}