diff --git a/.env.sepolia b/.env.sepolia
index e518129fb..64c3f271c 100644
--- a/.env.sepolia
+++ b/.env.sepolia
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ BASE_NODE_L1_TRUST_RPC="false"
 
 # ENGINE CONFIGURATION
 # --------------------
-BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_RPC=http://execution:8551
+BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_RPC=ws://execution:8551
 BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_AUTH=/tmp/engine-auth-jwt
 BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_AUTH_RAW=688f5d737bad920bdfb2fc2f488d6b6209eebda1dae949a8de91398d932c517a
 
diff --git a/consensus-entrypoint b/consensus-entrypoint
index 05b89467a..53cf72e9d 100755
--- a/consensus-entrypoint
+++ b/consensus-entrypoint
@@ -46,13 +46,17 @@ until [ "$(curl -s --max-time 10 --connect-timeout 5 -w '%{http_code}' -o /dev/n
   sleep 5
 done
 
-if PUBLIC_IP=$(get_public_ip); then
-  echo "fetched public IP is: $PUBLIC_IP"
+if [[ -z "${BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP:-}" ]]; then
+  if PUBLIC_IP=$(get_public_ip); then
+    echo "fetched public IP is: $PUBLIC_IP"
+    export BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP=$PUBLIC_IP
+  else
+    echo "Could not retrieve public IP and BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP is not set."
+    exit 8
+  fi
 else
-  echo "Could not retrieve public IP."
-  exit 8
+  echo "using operator-provided BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP=$BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP"
 fi
-export BASE_NODE_P2P_ADVERTISE_IP=$PUBLIC_IP
 
 echo "$BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_AUTH_RAW" > "$BASE_NODE_L2_ENGINE_AUTH"