Communicating from PC to Arduino w/ Ethernet Shield

I want to learn about how to program Ethernet based softwares. So far, I found out how to send data from Arduino to the PC. However, I wanted to know how data can be transfer from the PC to the Arduino and the acceptable format.

My question is what software can send data to Arduino and what library files (Java, C++) can I use that will work with the communication protocol?

Any help is appreciated =)

However, I wanted to know how data can be transfer from the PC to the Arduino

Just like you send it from the Arduino to the PC. Some application on the PC connects to the serial port that the Arduino is listening to, and starts sending data.

Serial.available() and Serial.read() on the Arduino take care of getting the serial data.

and the acceptable format.

Whatever makes sense for your application.

My question is what software can send data to Arduino

Lots. The Serial Monitor is some existing software that can. If you want to develop your own, look at the Playground. There is a huge section on making the PC talk to the Arduino.

PaulS:

However, I wanted to know how data can be transfer from the PC to the Arduino

Just like you send it from the Arduino to the PC. Some application on the PC connects to the serial port that the Arduino is listening to, and starts sending data.

Serial.available() and Serial.read() on the Arduino take care of getting the serial data.

and the acceptable format.

Whatever makes sense for your application.

My question is what software can send data to Arduino

Lots. The Serial Monitor is some existing software that can. If you want to develop your own, look at the Playground. There is a huge section on making the PC talk to the Arduino.

I am pretty confident with serial communication. What I am looking at is Ethernet communication. I would like to know the software capable of Ethernet communication with Arduino.

I would like to know the software capable of Ethernet communication with Arduino.

Any browser is capable. All the software needs to do is open a socket bound to the port that the Arduino is listening to.

Though why you are trying to talk to the Arduino via the ethernet shield is a mystery.

PaulS:

I would like to know the software capable of Ethernet communication with Arduino.

Any browser is capable. All the software needs to do is open a socket bound to the port that the Arduino is listening to.

Though why you are trying to talk to the Arduino via the ethernet shield is a mystery.

The browser can only listen to the data and not send them. The main objective is for learning.

The browser can only listen to the data and not send them.

Really? So how are you getting posts to the forum?

PaulS:

The browser can only listen to the data and not send them.

Really? So how are you getting posts to the forum?

Each link is a request for data to be sent from the server.
How do you send a string, say "ABC", to a known destination from a browser?

Each link is a request for data to be sent from the server.

The browser parses the URL, extracting the host name and other parts. Then, it opens a socket on the port specified and streams the data to the host. The http protocol defines what that data should consist of, and the order of the data that makes up the request.

In the end, though, there is just some bytes written to a socket, and a response arrives at the same socket.