I have nearly achieved remoting into my home server except for this one problem.
I have 2 components, 1. a GliNet Comet (in my Tailnet), and 2. dedicated Asus wifi router running FreshTomato 2026.2 in Media Bridge mode. The media bridge serves one purpose: relay data from the main wifi router to the Comet. The PC itself has it's own wifi NIC. The Comet's only connection to the PC is via HDMI.
The media bridge + Comet are connected to a smart plug that cuts power when not needed. It shuts down the Comet and the media bridge. Powering the plug enables the Comet and the media bridge. The bridge auto connects to the main router, and the Comet appears in my Tailnet automatically.
In testing, I am at home and can successfully send WoWLAN magic packets. I can shut down the server and return an hour later of being stone cold off and the Comet will boot the server. This is using 5G over cellular to access the tailnet, which proves I can be geographically remote and still trigger the WoWLAN.
But when I power cycle the smart plug, it results in subsequent magic packets failing.
Media Bridge mode in FreshTomato means that all DHCP is done by the main router. In my main router, I have assigned a static table assignment for an IP to be assigned to the server MAC address. The server is directly connected to the main router over wifi. So the power cycle somehow interferes with the magic packet:
Phone->Comet Web UI -> phone tailnet client -> web -> home main router -> media bridge-> Comet -> wake request <- -> media bridge -> main router -> server NIC
As you can see, the media bridge and main router are the only steps in the signal chain that could interfere with the magic packet and 1. the main router is set up correctly, 2. the media bridge is a dumb relay and should not have any part in forgetting the ARP assignment.
Can anyone suggest what could be going wrong?