I have been searching around for a wireless ethernet sheild - currently I have a Seeeduino that I have connected to an old remote control gate entry relay - when the relay clicks via the remote I pick it up through the ardiuno and set off another 12v relay that opens my two inner door catches.
I really want to add a keypad, which I will be buying today, and also it would be really useful to know if the door is open or closed so I can get to it via my internal network.
I have seen the ethernet shields, but if I add just one more cable to our house my girlfriend is going to extract my manhood by way of a blunt butterknife, so it's quite imperative that I make this wireless.
Looking around it seems as though the xbee is the thing I want, but I can't quite see if it's 802.11 of not, or indeed find out much about it.
If you can't wait for this solution, you have two options. One is xbee and the second is la fonera.
xbees allows communication via oen another wirelessly. You would still need another layer to communicate with the internet. Your options for these are a dedicated pc - free, the ethernet shield (with arduino) - $65 or the digi connectport $200. all of these solutions would be wired to an xbee. This xbee would then transfer the data to another xbee (with arduino connected) wirelessly. the xbees are about $20 each a well for the cheapest ones, and you would need two.
la fonera is a cheap router $35. However, it can be hacked and made into an ethernet hub running dd-wrt. It communicates to your arduino via serial port. Your arduino would send the fonera commands, fonera would get data from internet and relay it back to your arduino
If you don't mind your soltuion being a little bulky, I'd go with the fonera. It is a little advanced to setup, though. It is not a plug and play solution like the rest.
I might just hold on for the shield in the link you posted - that looks great.
Although....you have given me a great idea. I have a dd-wrt compatible router that I don't use. I already managed to hack Linux on to it as it's 'in the list' so-to-speak.
It would be bulky, but I'm already forming another project in my head with that in mind.
For my front door solution, the shield you posted is perfect.
well the advantage of la fonera is it has a ttl level serial port and 6 I/o pins. therefore it is pretty easy to pair it up with the arduino.
While there are many routers out there that can have dd-wrt installed on it, not many have documentation regarding their serial and I/o pins. Plus even if they do, the dd-wrt distro you put on the router would have to allow access to those pins.
Basicly what you are suggesting is possible. Its jsut that there might not be much documentation regarding the subject and you wuold ahev to do a lot of field work by yourself. That being said, experimenting and learning everything by yourself is a lot more gratifying, especially once you have a finsihed working project.