Ethernet: Where to Start?

update: see my further below which will explain what i've managed to achieve so far.

Hi Guys,

problem: i need to know the simplest place/tutorial that i can create ethernet for my own cyclone iv board (i've got a De0-nano on the way for protoyping).

my skills:

Lets just go with I know nothing. I've done a basic make my own CPU with quatrus with VHDL and i KNOW OF Nios cores being basically an automatic creation of one of those.

what have i been doing:

Basically i'm an exhausted anf frustrated noob. I'm not just posting here saying "someone do my work for me". You've all been here trying to start learning and going crazy in the process. For a week+ I've been searching, reading, searching some more and I cannot see anything clear to help me get started with ethernet. I'm just getting more confused. People just say "drop the SOPC modules" and the other places say a lot more complex stuff. I'm going crazy and need a "babies first ethernet" tutorial or something to get f'n started.

my grand plan:

University project. I want to create my own FPGA that connects via ethernet to a PC/Network where i can write my own windows application to send/recieve data. This FPPGA will also be connected to a D5M camera and video is one of the things i need to transmit. But the project is much bigger than this, but this is my current package of work.

I really apperciate any help that anyone can give.