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pollardd's avatar
pollardd
Aspirant
Aug 06, 2019

4G Signal Bars drop from 5 to 2 after 30 minutes and stays that way

Hi Guys,

I have a LB2120 and it is working fairly well.

I'm in a regional area and have it connected to an external 4G antenna.

It's permanently connected to 4G. It is not used in fail over mode.

When I first boot the device it shows 5 signal bars on the modem and it goes like a rocket.

Ping 39ms 53Mbps Down and 28Mbps Up.  

After around 30 minutes it drops back to 2 signal bars and and stays that way indefinately

The speed is considerably slower especially the upload speed.

Ping 39ms 29Mbps Down and 2.85Mbps Up.

This is very consistant.  It does it every time I reboot.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

 

By The Way the firmware is up to date according to the user interface but I can't actually see the version number anywhere.

14 Replies

  • Blanca_O's avatar
    Blanca_O
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Aug 13, 2019

    Hi pollardd

     

    Welcome to NETGEAR Community! 

     

    What is the network type (4G, 3G, 2G) when the signal bars dropped to 2 bars? 

     

    Regards, 
    Blanca 
    Community Team
     

    • pollardd's avatar
      pollardd
      Aspirant
      Aug 13, 2019

      Hi Blanca,

      The connection is always 4G when I have 5 Bars and when I have 2 Bars.

      Thanks

      David

  • Blanca_O's avatar
    Blanca_O
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Aug 27, 2019

    Hi David, 

     

    You mentioned that LB2120 is connected to an external 4G antenna. Have you tried another external antenna? 

     

    Regards, 
    Blanca 
    Community Team

    • pollardd's avatar
      pollardd
      Aspirant
      Aug 27, 2019

      Hi Blanca,
      That's a good idea unfortunately I only have one antenna.
      When I say it is external it's bolted to the outside of my house on a mast.
      It's a good quality directional antenna worth a couple of hundred dollars so I'd be very surprised if the antenna could cause this problem. It used to work consistently on my previous modem.
      I actually have a second LB2120 for use at a different site and I thought I’d try that one before I deploy it. The second device starts on 5 bars for about 30 seconds then drops back to 2.
      I have done some more speed tests on both devices, while on 2 signal bars and the speed is OK. Consistantly it obtains a Ping 31ms Download ~45Mbps Upload ~ 10Mbps.
      I think we will have to leave this as an "anomaly".  I was hoping there was some power saving setting I could change to keep it at 5 bars but it seems I'm dreaming :)

      Thanks for your assistance.

      David

       

      • psynpase's avatar
        psynpase
        Aspirant
        Feb 15, 2020

        HI,

         

        Only recently joined the community with a move from Huawei to a Netgear LB2120. 

         

        I also recently installed a MIMO pair of external antenna.  With the Huawei I found that I had the same problem as you ( but typically after only 5 minutes).  The Huawei has a slightly more sensitive rf front end than the Netgear, but in this case it did me no favours.  The service provider would note that I had good signal strength and switch me to the high band, with major consequences :- my download/upload rate dropped from 80/20 Meg to 30/0.4 Meg.

         

        The move to a Netgear LB2120 gives me 2dB less, just enough to avoid the telco shifting band! (And also provides me with Band 28 fallback) 

         

        Of course this may not be your problem, but check to see what your telcos policy is  And check the modem status; you will see the band you are currently on near the bottom of the screen