Chapter 1. Discover the Arduino Ethernet Shield

In this first chapter of the book, we will only focus on the basics and get started with the Arduino Ethernet shield. In order to build more complex projects in the next chapters of the book, we first need to be absolutely sure that our shield is functioning correctly, and it can connect to our local network and the Web.

To ensure this, we'll first assemble the hardware, and then build a simple Arduino sketch that will connect to the Web, grab a test web page, and display it back inside the Arduino Serial Monitor.

These will be the major takeaways of this chapter:

• First, we'll make sure that you have all the required hardware and software components. We are also going to assemble the shield and the Arduino Uno board, and connect everything to our local network via a router.
• Then, we will write the sketch that will connect your shield to your local network as well as the Web, and this sketch will grab a test page to make sure your connection is working correctly.
• Finally, we are going to test this sketch and monitor the status of the Ethernet shield on the Arduino Serial Monitor. From this first test of the shield, we'll be able to tell whether the shield is correctly connected to the Internet or not.