I'm trying to connect my new Arduino Ethernet Shield without success any suggestions how should I do it, step by step?
My Local Area Connection gives only Limited connectivity and I'm not sure what to do. tnx :-/
A few things to keep in mind:
You have to set your MAC address and IP address yourself in your Arduino sketch.
If you are connecting your Arduino board to your computer via an ethernet cable, the cable needs to be a crossover cable, also called a patch cable.
If you are connecting your Arduino board to your computer via Ethernet cable, your computer has to be set to be sharing its Internet connection to your Ethernet port. (For example, you are connected to the Internet on your computer via WiFi, so you "share" your Internet connection from WiFi to your Ethernet port.)
If you're connecting directly to your network, make sure that you don't have any firewalls set up such that it is blocking a port you need to be using (like port 80 for web traffic).
Start with the example Ethernet client sketch found in the Arduino IDE example sketches. But make sure that the IP address you are using isn't one that's already assigned to a computer on your network.
If you are connecting your Arduino board to your computer via an ethernet cable, the cable needs to be a crossover cable, also called a patch cable.
Maybe. Most laptops and many desktops have an autoconfiguration mode where they'll actually look for a signal on the wrong pair first, and insert that crossover for you automatically if you need it. The mac laptops have done this for years.
Otherwise, good advice. Folks used to the automatic configuration that most computers get with DHCP have to do a bit more work than they're used to in order to get an Arduino on the network.
Hopefully some enterprising soul will get bored and implement a DHCP client (or at least a BOOTP client, which is slightly simpler) for us. 
-j
I think wiznet (the designer and manufacturer of the TCP/IP chip) already implemented DHCP using AVR... I guess it is a matter of adding the code to the Ethernet Library?
I dunno; a quick google turned up some references to a mega128 implementation, but i didn't see a mega8 version.
I think someone has added UDP support to the ethernet library (I don't think that's made it into the official software distro yet), so maybe DHCP will follow before too long.
-j
Sorry, I didn't mean to say mega8... just AVR in general. Now with m328's available, maybe it is possible to add DHCP and DNS support to the Ethernet library? I know we are still at 1/4 the capacity of the m128, but maybe worth taking a look...
Thanks guys, I manage to connect the AES (Arduino Ethernet Shield), but only directly from the Hub, which creates some logistics problems, ( I don't think my wife likes the idea of me, running in the house with cables and Arduinos ;D).
I'll get a crossover cable and try as well.
Next step would be what kind of cool stuff can be done with it. Any ideas?
I'll get a crossover cable and try as well.
I'm pretty sure that the board itself can handle either.
What OS are you using?
--Phil.
win xp. the problem is that I'm using wirless connection and when I'm connecting the Ethernet with fix IP, I manage to connect to the arduino but lose my Internet connection. I'm not sure why, maybe firewall issue.