More advanced EtherCAT setup questions

 
Now that I've got my basic setup running, I'm looking at the more detailed setup, and have a few questions.

How are people monitoring that all the EtherCAT devices are still connected?
I've been testing, and if I simply unplug a cable or power them off, no immediate fault is generated. LinuxCNC only finally disables when I try moving an axis due to a following error. Is there some form of pin available that will detect if a device(s) have lost communication?

Is anybody reading the status from drives during operation?
I know I could connect the drive error variable to a suitable HAL pin. but is anybody also reading the error code?

I know that the last two questions are probably as much GUI based, but I'd be grateful to any pointers on how these things can be implemented.