I've found that both Ethernet and Wi-Fi modules with a built-in stack are
a pain to work with. They lack the flexibility to do what you really want.
So, I've always ended up back with the Microchip ECN chips for Ethernet. I
have a back-burner project that will use the Microchip Wi-Fi module, which
uses the Microchip TCP/IP stack running on the PIC.

I think it should be possible to also do this with a BlueTooth module, but
I have never tried. I sometimes run my wife's Mac laptop through the
BlueTooth on my cellphone to get Internet connectivity when away from
home. But, again, I've never tried to implement this on my own.

As for what Microchip chips to use, I don't think you can run the stack on
a PIC16. I've run it on a PIC18F6722, a PIC24HJ256GP610, and on a couple
PIC32 chips.

My Wi-Fi project is "back burner" right now, so I am not devoting much
time to it. But one thought to ease the user interface is to have the
Wi-Fi show up as an ad hoc network with an appropriate SSID to make it
easy to identify from a tablet or laptop. I'd also run a DNS server on the
PIC to create the "Starbucks effect" where any domain lookup returns the
IP address of this device. So, a user connects to the device over Wi-Fi
using an easily recognized name, then opens a web browser. As long as
their home page has a domain name lookup (like http://www.google.com) and
not an IP address or a local file (like bookmarks), they'll see the
device. This avoids having the user key in IP addresses. Just open the
browser, and you're there.

Good luck!

Harold


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