Possibly an error in the Ethernet Web Server example sketch?

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Hi,

Please bear with me, because I am just a novice at Arduino stuff, but while trying to get a grip on the Arduino Ethernet Shield, I think I found something that might be a mistake in the Ethernet Web Server example sketch?
In the sketch it is stated that it is meant for the Arduino being a web server (so not a client). A client can connect to this web server, and is served with a simple web page in a browser.

In the Arduino Reference the Ethernet library is explained.
As I understand it, there are two usage classes: Server and Client.
It is explained that:
“The Server class creates servers which can send data to and receive data from connected clients.”
and that:
“The client class creates clients that can connect to servers and send and receive data.”

So in the example Web Server sketch I would think that we have to follow the Server class.
Each of these two classes has a println() function.
The Server.println function is explained as:
“Print data, followed by a newline, to all the clients connected to a server.”
and the Client.println function is explained as:
“Print data, followed by a carriage return and newline, to the server a client is connected to.”

So I would expect that in this case the Server.prinln function has to be used to serve the HTML code to the connected clients.
However, in the example sketch the Client.println function is used?

Of course I did try it, and (at least in my sketches) it does not make any difference which function is used: both Server.println and client.println have exactly the same effect.
But would it not be more logic to use the Server.println function in the Ethernet Web Server example sketch?

By the way, the same counts for the Server.print and Client.print functions: in the example sketch the Client.print function is used, and this should be the Server.print function?

2

ignore the print functions of EthernetServer. they are useless.

EthernetClient object wraps a TCP socket. A normal TCP socket is connected to IP address and port.

EthernetServer starts a listening socket on a port. If server on listening socket is contacted by a remote client socket, ithe server creates a local client socket connected with the remote client socket on a free port and returns a EthernetClient object wrapping the socket. Everything you write or print to a EthernetClient is send to that one remote socket.

3

"It is explained that:
"The Server class creates servers which can send data to and receive data from connected clients."
and that:
"The client class creates clients that can connect to servers and send and receive data.""

Yes, and you can run both server and client code at the same time if desired.