That is very strange with your PC, I mean that it is doing the same unexpected things with the direct connection.
Honestly I don't know what can possible cause such issues, but will ask my collegue tomorrow about what tests could we make to verify what the problem is.
I have one idea for now is the power supply you using, what is the voltage on it? can you please verify with measuring if it has a constant 12 to 24Volts. (I don't know what voltage one you using).
I mean I remember a case when somebody used an 5V powersupply accidentally on the UC400ETH and had some similar strange things happened and that was because the 5V input voltage is not enough, it produces a too low voltage for the ethernet controller chip to work correctly, a low enough voltage to make it work erratic, but high enough that it still works to some level and the sympton was lost packets and strange happenings.
About your laptop: That's understandable that the connection can be unreliable with Wifi connection, generally we advice to avoid using Wifi, because it may not work reliably.
If you connect via direct cable connection instead of the wifi and if you run the Utility tool of the UCCNC and scan then does it see your UC400ETH controller?
If it does not see the controller then you have a physical connection problem or the LAN card in the laptop is not working at all (e.g. LAN card drivers are not installed or the device is disabled),
because the Utility tool communicates with the devices with sending out broadcast messages which means that all network devices must receive those messages, no matter where they are located on the network.
If the UCCNC saoftware can't communicate with the device is different and that also depends on if the network settings are correct, but not the utility tool, because as mentioned that sends broadcast messages,
so it must find your device if your network card is working and if the physical connection is OK.
So, the first thing to do is to check if the Utility tool sees your device or not, if not then check if your LAN card in the laptop is even working and verify if you using the correct cable for the connection and if it is connected correctly.
When you get the Utility tool to find your device then it will be time to check the connection parameters with pressing the Test connection button and see if it gives any error.
If there is an error then you should check what it is and make the LAN settings in the network card and the UC400ETH to match.
If that is also working then the connection should be working and then also make sure you have installed (copied) the license key file to the UCCNC folder and then run the UCCNC and then it should find and connect to your UC400ETH.