Ethernet on black WiFi pod issue
I have a hub 5x and two black WiFi pods on a 350Mb package. Off one of the WiFi pods, I have a tp-link powerline adapter connected to the pod via ethernet cable to serve internet in a garden office.
All has been working fine for around 6 months. In the last week, there was some sort of over night outage for a few hours. Since then I’ve had issues with the one WiFi pod and internet via powerline (everything else came back fine after the outage).
The WiFi pod pulses white indicating a connection issue back to the hub. I’ve power cycled everything in order several times. No luck. I’ve swapped round the WiFi pods in case of a specific pod fault and same behaviour. I’ve tried different Ethernet ports, Ethernet cables and power sockets. Again; no luck.
What I have noticed is that the pod works/connects fine WITHOUT an Ethernet cable connected. As soon as I connect the cable, the pod cycles through connection again (blue, then green lights) but doesn’t revert to a solid white light; it pulses white as if there is no connection (even after waiting some time).
the WiFi pod and hub are only six metres apart and with it working previously I’m confident it isn’t a placement issue.
I can’t plug powerline directly into the hub (without a lot of cable/drilling work) as the hub is placed on a different electrical circuit to where the WiFi pod is placed.
Both WiFi pods show up in the VM connect app indicating they are provisioned correctly I guess. I do have intermittent issues where VM app service status check returns that it can’t connect to hub but internet is working fine for a plethora of devices connected wirelessly and wired into the hub and the other WiFi pod so I haven’t paid much attention to that.
I’ve exhausted all ideas on remedying this problem. Help gratefully received.
The hub 5x is struggling to handle Ethernet backhaul via third-party hardware (like powerline) after a reset, so the pod fails the handshake. Do this to fix the problem.
1️⃣ Disable “Power Save” on the TP‑Link powerline adapters.
This ensures the Ethernet link won’t flap when the pod tries to use wired backhaul.2️⃣ Factory‑reset and re‑pair the TP‑Link adapters.
This clears stale MAC tables created during the outage.3️⃣ Now power everything off at the wall socket in this order:
- Hub 5x
- Both VM Pods
- Both TP‑Link adapters
Leave everything off for at least two minutes. This full cold shutdown clears ARP tables, mesh state and link negotiation history.
4️⃣ Power on the Hub 5x.
5️⃣ Power on the VM Pods (wireless only at first).
Turn on both pods without Ethernet connected.6️⃣ Power on the TP‑Link powerline adapters.
This ensures the powerline link is stable.7️⃣ Connect the Ethernet cable to the pod.
Only now plug the Ethernet cable from the powerline into the VM Pod. If everything above is correct:- the pod should accept Ethernet backhaul
- the light should go solid white
- no pulsing white
- no blue/green cycling
The black VM pods only have one Ethernet port and are very strict about what they accept as a wired backhaul, and powerline adapters often trigger rejection. The newer white pods have two Ethernet ports and an internal switch, making them far more stable for wired backhaul setups like yours. The biggest problem might be in persuading VM to swap the black pods for white ones. But best of all is to dump powerline and use only Ethernet cables for backhaul.
