I am currently making a design that uses the Arduino's Ethernet shield. I am using the PushingBox API for Arduino, and have tried it with my Arduino Mega (2560) with the ethernet shield attached to the router. When I did this, however, it displayed a message on my serial monitor saying Failed to configure Ethernet using DHCP. The model for my Ethernet Shield is a W5200 Seeed Studio Ethernet Shield, and I am using the libraries that Arduino provides. I do not have an SD card inserted and the DHCP on all other wired devices works. Any help is greatly appreciated.

The code (in case):

#include <SPI.h>
#include <Ethernet.h>

  /////////////////
 // MODIFY HERE //
/////////////////
byte mac[] = { 0x00, 0xAA, 0xBB, 0xCC, 0xDE, 0x19 };   // Be sure this address is unique in your network


//Your secret DevID from PushingBox.com. You can use multiple DevID  on multiple Pin if you want
char DEVID1[] = "{[I have replaced this with my DevID]}";        //Scenario : "The mailbox is open"

//Numeric Pin where you connect your switch
uint8_t pinDevid1 = 3; // Example : the mailbox switch is connect to the Pin 3

// Debug mode
boolean DEBUG = true;
  //////////////
 //   End    //
//////////////


char serverName[] = "api.pushingbox.com";
boolean pinDevid1State = false;                // Save the last state of the Pin for DEVID1
boolean lastConnected = false;                 // State of the connection last time through the main loop


// Initialize the Ethernet client library
// with the IP address and port of the server 
// that you want to connect to (port 80 is default for HTTP):
EthernetClient client;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(pinDevid1, INPUT);
  
  // start the Ethernet connection:
  if (Ethernet.begin(mac) == 0) {
    Serial.println("Failed to configure Ethernet using DHCP");
    Serial.println("Please reconfigure the settings and try again.");
    // no point in carrying on, so do nothing forevermore:
    while(true);
  }
  else{
    Serial.println("Ethernet ready");
    // print the Ethernet board/shield's IP address:
    Serial.print("My IP address: ");
    Serial.println(Ethernet.localIP());
  }
  // give the Ethernet shield a second to initialize:
  delay(1000);
}

void loop()
{
      ////
      // Listening for the pinDevid1 state
      ////
      if (digitalRead(pinDevid1) == HIGH && pinDevid1State == false) // switch on pinDevid1 is ON 
      {
        if(DEBUG){Serial.println("pinDevid1 is HIGH");}
        pinDevid1State = true;
        //Sending request to PushingBox when the pin is HIGH
        sendToPushingBox(DEVID1);
      }
       if (digitalRead(pinDevid1) == LOW && pinDevid1State == true) // switch on pinDevid1 is OFF
      {
        if(DEBUG){Serial.println("pinDevid1 is LOW");}
        pinDevid1State = false;
        //Sending request to PushingBox when the pin is LOW
        //sendToPushingBox(DEVID1);    //Here you can run an other scenario by creating a DEVID2 variable
      }
      
      
      //DEBUG part
      // this write the respons from PushingBox Server.
      // You should see a "200 OK"
      if (client.available()) {
        char c = client.read();
        if(DEBUG){Serial.print(c);}
      }
      
      // if there's no net connection, but there was one last time
      // through the loop, then stop the client:
      if (!client.connected() && lastConnected) {
        if(DEBUG){Serial.println();}
        if(DEBUG){Serial.println("disconnecting.");}
        client.stop();
      }
      lastConnected = client.connected();
}


//Function for sending the request to PushingBox
void sendToPushingBox(char devid[]){
  client.stop();
  if(DEBUG){Serial.println("connecting...");}

  if (client.connect(serverName, 80)) {
    if(DEBUG){Serial.println("connected");}

    if(DEBUG){Serial.println("sendind request");}
    client.print("GET /pushingbox?devid=");
    client.print(devid);
    client.println(" HTTP/1.1");
    client.print("Host: ");
    client.println(serverName);
    client.println("User-Agent: Arduino");
    client.println();
  } 
  else {
    if(DEBUG){Serial.println("connection failed");}
  }
}

If the code for the DHCP error is removed, it does display an external IP address, but actual HTTP requests do not work. I tried port forwarding and that did not work either.

EDIT: Now, unusually, it gives me an IP address WITHOUT the ethernet cord connected.