After working with various Arduino Ethernet-connected projects it can become cumbersome to have to concern yourself with the required MAC and IP addresses before uploading to each particular board. For individual or low-volume projects this may not seem like a problem, however if you're constantly working in this arena or with large volumes of boards it can be a pain to upload individual sketches to each board.
An interesting solution to this problem has been provided by Australia enthusiast "gregington" who has published an Arduino library which can set and retrieve both the MAC and IP address to the Arduino or compatible board's EEPROM - thus leaving the network configuration in the hardware and not the sketch.
All the user needs to do is continue using the library, and the settings are ready for use. It's a neat solution to a common problem, and you can find out more and download the library from here. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
Looking to get started with Ethernet/Internet and the Arduino platform? Then save time, space and money with the Freetronics EtherTen. Apart from being fully Arduino Uno-compatible, it has onboard Ethernet, microSD socket, full USB interface (so you don't need a costly FTDI cable just to upload a sketch!) and supports optional Power-over-Ethernet.
