Hi.
I'm trying to connect my arduino to the internet in order to access a firebase database.
After researching online I have purchased a arduino wireless proto shield, however after more research I am not sure if this will actually allow me to connect to a wifi network. Could anyone please tell me if the wireless proto shield will do the job, or if I should buy something else?
Thanks.
An Arduino and a "wireless", Wifi, can connect to something like a router that is connected to the Internet.
Maybe an Arduino and a directly Internet interfacing board would be a shorter way to go. It depends on what is available to You.
the wireless proto shield
Which of many? Post a link.
This is the exact one that i have.
@Railroader
So any wireless shield will do the job? The arduino must be able to connect to the internet through wifi.
What is a internet interfacing board?
If You have a wireless available, a router connected to the Internet, then use that. Other members know more than I regarding the difference between various Wifi boards.
@Railroader that is the idea I am going for. However having trouble figuring out which wireless board to use.
Thank you for the help anyway 
Without detailed knowledge I guess that a shield adopted by the controller board would be handy to use.
Serach for "Arduino and Wifi" to get examples of succesful projects.
As the brief overview on the product page makes clear, that shield is intended for XBee radio modules, aka "wireless modules". It does not support wifi connections.
If you were to google "arduino wifi shield", you would be led to several that do.
@jremington
So if i purchase a xbee module to go with the proto shield that will do the job?
@jremington
Google search leads me to multiple shields similar to the one listed above, seems to just be clones of the one above. However I have found this one
Do you think this will work?
First time working with an arduino or anything of the kind and its been very confusing.
Wifi is NOT EQUAL to wireless.
XBee radios do not connect to wireless access points, they connect to each other.
Wireless is any data connection made without wires, usually radio but sometimes infrared LEDs (IR).
This wifi shield will work with Arduino. However, this would be a very difficult place to start for a beginner. We strongly recommend to work through the simple examples that come with the Arduino software development package (blink an LED, read a voltage, a switch or a sensor, etc.) so you can learn the language and the special features of Arduino.
@jremington
I see where i was going wrong now. Ill pick up the board you have recommended. Thank you for the help.
Sorry, I just realized we don't know what Arduino you have. The Adafruit shield that I linked may not work with a standard Arduino Uno or similar.
Carefully study the Adafruit product page and tutorials to be sure.
@jremington
I have a arduino mega 2560. I am however having trouble finding a place that is selling the adafruit shield in the uk, so might have to look for a different one.
Could you take a look at this one for me and let me know if it will work?
The adafruit one is very difficult to come by in the uk, and I don't have the time to wait for shipping from the us. The only ones i was able to find were for ~£40 which seems too much to me.
That board is a self contained system, using the ESP8266 processor and wifi module, which can be programmed using the Arduino IDE. Once it is programmed with standard network interface software, you can connect to the board using the serial port of any computer or microcomputer, and in turn connect to the internet through your wifi router. Hookup guide here.
Is this product description meaningful and/or of use to you?
Using an AT command set, any microcontroller with a UART can use the ESP8266 to connect to WiFi networks, and interact with the rest of the Internet world over TCP or UDP.
There are many similar products, but they require you to be quite knowledgeable about web programming, and capable of writing a reasonably large microcomputer program to accomplish a specific connection task.
Perhaps if you explained what you are actually trying to do, someone on the forum could be more helpful.
What, exactly, does this mean?
I'm trying to connect my arduino to the internet in order to access a firebase database.
When you say "WiFi", or connecting the the Internet via wireless, which is essentially the same thing, the automatic answer is "ESP8266" (or the more expensive ESP32).
Now the ESP8266 is substantially more capable in terms of resources and processing power, so the question that follows is: "You now have a powerful processor, why would you now need an Arduino - UNO, Nano, Mega2560 and such - at all?"
@Paul__B
This is all for a university project and due to time constraints I have to stick with using an arduino, as i have already done a lot of work for it.
The board i have linked before is based on the esp8266, so it should do the job?
Link again so you don't have to look for it.
Thanks for the help.
No, it won't "do the job". The board will allow your Arduino or any other computer to connect to the internet.
You still have to write an Arduino program that connects to the wifi router, connects to the web site with the data base, connects to the data base and finally does information transfer as required.
The program that you need to write could run on the ESP8266 board itself, which is substantially faster and has substantially more memory than the Mega.
@jremington
Sparkfun provides a library which from my understanding can be used to connect the board to a wifi network. I have code which can be used to connect to the database once i have an internet connection.
I just wanted to be sure that the board will work, and actually allow the arduino to connect to the internet which you have said it should do.
Thanks.