Hi all, i'm interested on receiving some suggestion about this two shield, on main different, or about experiment from other user. i take a short look to both the support library and looks like the official one is more clear and well constructed, but maybe i'm wrong.
just let me know your experience!
I only have the official one, but I found it easy to learn to use. Besides the included samples, I have made it query a web server then light up an indicator when a condition is met. It's pretty nice, I think.
The official "Ethernet Shield" (also other shields using the WizNet chipset, or AdaFruit's shield using the NextPort Modules) are actually sort of "Internet Shields", implementing the mid-level protocol stacks (IP, UDP, TCP) within the chipset/shield. You get to pretty much talk to them using print-like routines. Set up a connection, send data, close the connection.
The NuElectronics Ethernet shield is a "bare ethernet" shield, whose chip does ethernet only. You get to implement the whole protocol stack (well, actually, someone has already implemented it, so you get to use an existing library.) This takes up a lot of the AVR's program space. On the other hand, you have more flexibility, and any high-level protocol issues you can FIX if you don't like the way they're done. (theoretically, anyway.)