I have been asked to add Ethernet to the microcontroller on my project. I'm using an 18F4553 at this time. The microcontroller needs to handle the IP itself. I see the PIC18F97J60 supports Ethernet, but I don't find designers going this route, seems the preferred method to add Ethernet is to use something like the Lantronix XPort Pro. I also don't find many code examples to implement Ethernet in Microcode. Looks like a Nuts-N-Volts article was discussed several years ago.

This request comes from a steering group for the project, one person believes the Ethernet needs to be built on the microcontroller to future proof the board from components getting phased out. At this time the communication is from the USART to a wireless network modem that is embedded on the circuit board. The fear is the network modem may change their footprint, or not make the embedded wireless modem option at some future time. If that happens then we would need a hardware change to the circuit board at that time. The same argument was made against using something like the Lantronix serial to Ethernet adapter.

So my questions are; what are my options to add Ethernet to the Microcontroller? Is there Pic Basic support for Ethernet, what I found didn't look friendly? Would I need to change to a different language like "C" and upgrade to something with more processing power to reliably incorporate Ethernet to the microcontroller/microprocessor?

Let me know if I missed something obvious, like the thread that has all the information that I'm looking for.

Thanks