I moved recently and my setup changed slightly because I needed a new Verizon 5G home internet gateway. I use the gateway in bridged mode and a TP-Link Deco m5 mesh network. The problem is if the Deco comes online before the gateway (which it always does), it never gets internet. If I unplug the deco and plug it in again then it is fine.
This didn’t happen with the old gateway. I need to fix it somehow as I control a lot of things when I’m not home and if the power goes out I lose access.
The only thing I can think of is a smart switch that has a delayed power up (if such a thing exists). I am hoping for a better solution though.
When it comes up and isn’t working, does the Deco have an IP address from the gateway? How long have you waited to see (minutes, hours?) if it retries again?
This sounds like some kind of bug where the Deco is timing out and then never retries getting a DHCP address.
If the outages are short, a UPS would help keep them from going down in the first place. If they are longer some more complex logic to delay startup might be required if you TPLink doesn’t offer any firmware updates to fix the issue. A crude workaround could be a daily reboot with a lamp timer that simply shuts off the Deco at midnight for a few minutes and turns it back on…at least it would eventually restart that way.
I let it sit for hours.
No, it doesn’t get an IP from the gateway. The gateway is in bridge mode. It does nothing except provide internet. I cannot even login as an admin without factory resetting it.
I’ll keep the daily reboot in mind if I can’t come up with anything else. I could lose access for almost 24 hours though.
So it sounds like your Verizon Gateway is slower to boot than your Deco Mesh system, but why the Deco doesn’t try to “ping” the Gateway for updated IP addressing once the Gateway is booted, I’m not sure.
Maybe the folks over at r/TpLink might be able to help?
One way to handle this is with a UPS (battery backup) for the internet devices you care about.