looking at getting an arduino mega
would like to do some interfacing with ethernet also
noticed there seem to be 2 common shields
the one listed on the arduino website using w5100 chip
and then another ive come across various places using enc28j60
would like some feedback as to which would be happier working with the mega
also from what im seeing around the place, aparently the mega does not work well with the current ehthernet shield without some modification?
I wound up buying the W5100 from ewiznet.com and the bare shield board from adafruit. Which was both smart (saved almost half the cost compared to an assembled unit) and dumb (I haven't actually used it yet because I haven't gotten around to building it yet ).
The official shield does have the advantage of a well-supported official library, but the other factor that made me choose it is that it has more smarts and power on the module than the ENC28J60.
btw, you don't actually have to use a shield: the W5100 is interfaced through SPI, so there are only a few connections to it. And, if you pick the right model, they're on .1" centers, so it's fairly easy to make the connections on standard perfboard. If you're planning on building "permanent" gadgets around the Arduino, and don't need a really complex function that's available on an off-the-shelf shield, you can do it more cheaply and compactly by using something like the moderndevice.com RBBB as the Arduino "core".
