What is the best way to start troubleshooting Ethernet devices?

If you are having problems communicating to an Ethernet device over a network and you can not ping the module, then connect a cross over cable from a local PC to the device itself. This eliminates any other issues with the network that could be causing the problems. When having a crossed connection to a device and you want to ping it, you must know if your PC and the device that you are trying to connect with are on the same subnet. Being on the same subnet means that if you are using a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 then for two devices to talk the three first octets in the source IP address and the destination IP need to match. Once you can ping the device then move onto connecting with the device with Concept, ProWorx or Unity..