diff --git a/fe1-web/src/features/lao/network/LaoGreetWatcher.ts b/fe1-web/src/features/lao/network/LaoGreetWatcher.ts
index 7991961d0e..2e332a3d48 100644
--- a/fe1-web/src/features/lao/network/LaoGreetWatcher.ts
+++ b/fe1-web/src/features/lao/network/LaoGreetWatcher.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import { Store } from 'redux';
 
+import { getNetworkManager } from 'core/network';
 import { getMessagesState } from 'core/network/ingestion';
 import { ExtendedMessage } from 'core/network/ingestion/ExtendedMessage';
 import { Hash, PublicKey, WitnessSignature, WitnessSignatureState } from 'core/objects';
@@ -37,16 +38,21 @@ export const storeBackendAndConnectToPeers = async (
     ),
   );
 
+  // connect to all received peer addresses
+  // after connecting to each peer, we will send a catchup which contains the lao#create message
+  // as soon as we have parsed this message, we will connect to the LAO on the new connection as well
+  // which will trigger another lao#greet message
+  // IMPORTANT: The network manager deduplicates connections to the same address (string)
+  // and the received peer addresses are supposed to be the canonical ones.
+  // Hence we just have to make sure that the first connection is also to the canonical
+  // address, otherwise a client will connect to the same server twice (e.g. using its IP and then
+  // then using the canonical domain address)
+  const networkManager = getNetworkManager();
+
   try {
-    // connect to all received peer addresses
-    // after connecting to each peer, we will send a catchup which contains the lao#create message
-    // as soon as we have parsed this message, we will connect to the LAO on the new connection as well
-    // which will trigger another lao#greet message
-    // IMPORTANT: The network manager deduplicates connections to the same address (string)
-    // and the received peer addresses are supposed to be the canonical ones.
-    // Hence we just have to make sure that the first connection is also to the canonical
-    // address, otherwise a client will connect to the same server twice (e.g. using its IP and then
-    // then using the canonical domain address)
+    await Promise.all(
+      greetLaoMsg.peers.map((peerAddress) => networkManager.connect(peerAddress.address)),
+    );
 
     // mark the lao#greet message as handled
     dispatch(