Can I connect to WiFi with an Arduino, "wireless SD shield" and XBee

Question

I want to create a growhouse sensor system. I have an Arduino UNO, wireless SD shield and I have just ordered a series 2 XBee XB24.

Any info I find seems to revolve around having 2 Arduinos and 2 XBee modules, why is that?

I am presuming that once I connect the XBee to the shield that I can then connect to my Arduino on the network and send and receive data, am I wrong?

I'm a developer and sysadmin but a noob to Arduino so any help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

The xbee network and the wifi network are both wireless networks, but, they do not communicate with each other.

You have two options.

1. Attach a second XBEE to your computer using one of these https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11812
2. Get a WIFI shield http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoWiFiShield

Answer 2

Do you remember the term mesh network? Xbee's create a mesh network or multipoint network using 802.15.4 (hurray for google) protocol. This is not compatible with 802.11, the wifi protocol.

If you want everything to talk, you are either going to need to get an Xbee for everything, or wi-fi for everything (or wi-fi + ethernet for that matter).