Hi everyone,

I need to design a device that would allow access to a
specific machine and measures the time the machine was in use.
This is to be done via a keypad. Every user will have a different
password. It must be user expandable.

I think this can be easily done with a PIC. However, the device
must be able to communicate with a LAN server. All the users
passwords, as well as time-keeping will be done by the server. The
device will only "question" the server as of whether the password was right
or not,
and if right the server will send an authorization code, the machine will
activate, and the server will start measuring the time the machine
has been in use. When the user desires to stop using the machine,
the machine is turned off and the time of use is recorded by the server.

There will be many machines controlled by this device-server configuration.
Thus, the server must be able to execute parallel identification and time
keeping.

So, I guess my question is: Can this be done with PIC's? I have the
premonition that I need other chip capable of communicating with
the LAN, which one would that be? Any suggestions or recommendations
to any of this?

Regards,

Pedro