And I now have enough understanding of the interface between MAC and IP. The simple part is what we know (creating frames, ARP/ND). Hard part is reading the data sheet of the specific MAC to see what needs to be initialized/monitored. But got there by just doing it. Thanks for all the pointers. Kept me sharper in the process. I used the simplest ETH board I could find. ENC28J60. With great documentation.