> I would like to send & receive very basic telnet commands with
> a pic or send periodic SMTP messages to my mail server
> I'm wanting to deliver temperature readings from a remote location
> in the mountains down to a control center 90 miles away which has
> a wireless ethernet link with the site (soon to buried in the snow).
> The only interface available is a standard ethernet hub, either
> 10Base-2 (coax) or 10Base-T (UTP).

> I may just put a cheap-o Linux server up there

Frankly, for a one-off project, the non-recurring engineering to
build all the layers of networking stack (Ethernet, IP, TCP, and
Telnet or SMTP) just isn't worth it.  I'd go with the Linux box.

If you want to do it with an embedded processor, I wouldn't use
a low-end PIC.  The Motorola 32-bit line have some with built-in
serial hardware that can do Ethernet (e.g. 68360).

                                                Lee Jones