Communicating Over Networks Using an Ethernet Shield

In the previous section, you learned how to build network applications with an Arduino by using your PC’s network connection. This approach works nicely, but it also has a few disadvantages. The biggest problem is that you need a complete PC, while for many applications the Arduino’s hardware capabilities would be sufficient. In this section, you’ll learn how to solve this problem with an Ethernet shield.

Usually, you can’t connect a naked Arduino to a network. Not only are its hardware capabilities too limited, but also most Arduino boards don’t have an Ethernet port. That means you can’t plug an Ethernet cable into them, and to overcome this limitation, you have to use an Ethernet shield. ...

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