The Wiznet W5100 is very popular, it does much of the heavy lifting
especially compared with the ENC28J80.=20

Cheapest when purchased as an "Ethernet Shield", very close to your $5
budget:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/201253750894

Cheerful regards, Bob

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015, at 12:10 PM, KPL wrote:
> Hi,
>=20
> With all these IOT things, everybody uses ESP8266 for various
> applications, where something has to be measured, switched, etc
> remotely, in relatively close proximity. Nothing can beat that price,
> under 5$ for MCU with wifi.
>=20
> What could be the cheapest/easiest option to get the same with wired
> ethernet? PIC with ENC28J60?
>=20
> I'm talking about really simple tasks, currently I need to switch on
> and off some lights around the house. I have not tried to program
> ESP8266 directly, just as an serial-wifi bridge with PIC, programmed
> in JAL, and it did not seem very reliable.
> As far as I have looked, ENC28J60 libraries seemed quite easy to use
> in JAL, so probably that's the way to go.
> Are there any other cheap and simple options?
>=20
> I have used LANTRONIX UDS-10 as serial-ethernet bridge, but I have a
> very limited amount of them, and they are quite bulky.
>=20
> --=20
> KPL

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