I want to make a project in which I need to interface microcontroller with PC through Ethernet Port. For that, I am planning to use Microchip Controllers. My question is that among PIC18F97J60 and PIC32MX6XX, which controller will be easy to use for first timer like me ? also, microchip has stand alone ethernet controller ENC28J60. So, which approach will be easy i.e., Ethernet PIC controller or ENC28J60 with another controller ?
Essentially all the Microchip enabled devices and the ENC28J60 use the same drivers and TCP/IP stack. I've used most Microchip's Ethernet enabled devices in commercial projects and while they performed well, setting up the TCP/IP Stack can be a challenge for the unfamiliar.
The easiest solution would be to use a device with an embedded TCP/IP stack, like a WIZnet device:
These types of devices only require establishing a serial connection between your MCU and the device, the Ethernet connection is initialized using simple commands via the serial connection.
There are other manufactures of these embedded TCP/IP Ethernet modules, besides WIZnet.