LB1120 Signal drops after 1 minute

[Cynthsdomingo]

My LB1120 has AT&T data sim and it was working fine the last few months but last week, it started to lose the signal to literally 0 bars. It’s weird though that it was still connected to the internet but it’s unstable. When I try to do device restart, it will have 3 bars (that’s the max we can get in our area due to being somewhat remote), then after a minute or so, the signal will just drop to no bar at all.

[Blanca_O]

Hi @Cynthsdomingo

Welcome to NETGEAR Community!

If the No Signal icon displays on the modem’s web page, make sure that you are in your network provider’s coverage area. The reception on your modem is poor. Try moving it to a location with a clear view of the sky (for example, near a window).

Regards,
Blanca
Community Team

[Cynthsdomingo]

The spot where I put the router is where the strongest signal in our place. It doesn’t make sense that it starts with 3 bars then suddenly drops to 1 bar. I also tried putting the sim card into a different hotspot device and the signal does not drop in that device unlike when I use LB1120. I have had no problems with this device before. It only started behaving like this in the last 3 weeks.

[Blanca_O]

Hi @Cynthsdomingo

Kindly reset LB1120 to factory default settings. On the back of the device, press and hold the reset button for at least five seconds. 

Regards,
Blanca
Community Team

[Cynthsdomingo]

Hi Blanca,

I already did this twice. It actually made it worse. Initially the signal the router is getting is just 3G after I did the reset. When I checked the advance details, it’s showing WCDMA instead Of LTe. Then, i had to re-insert my sim card several times before the 4G LTE signal came back. But after a minute, the 3 bars of signal is down to zero bar again. 😞

Cynthia

[Blanca_O]

Hi Cynthia, 

Kindly contact support to better isolate the issue for possible hardware problem. To reach our Support team: http://www.netgear.com/support/contact.aspx

Regards,
Blanca
Community Team

[delamj]

Have had a similar issue with my LB1120 since spring of this year 2020. After unpowering and powering back up, the signal level is 4 bars solid. After 30 seconds to a minute, it drops right down to 2 bars and stays. Seems to be impacting our upload and download speeds which I never had an issue with before this spring. I get the same result when I unplug the external antenna and plug it back in, jumps up to 4 bars and after about 30 seconds drops down to 2 bars. Im using AT&T and I do know that they did some service work to the tower this spring which incidentally seemed to be around the LB1120 also took its last update and the problem started. kinda at a loss as to where to go with this as AT&T claims to not have adjusted anything on there end to impact service. Tempted to try new LB1120 or Nighthawk 5g model but not before identifying the problem first.

[rnoia]

I'm having the exact same issue as you. Upon a reboot, I have 4 solid bars. If I look at the details, it says I am connected to a band 12 tower that is 500 feet away and I get 8Mbps download.  1 minute later, it drops to 2 bars and fluctuates to 3 briefly, but still getting 4G, but now on band 4, which I know from cellmapper is over half a mile away. In both cases the signal quality is ~51.

I'm using Mint Mobile / T-mobile. So I've been wondering if it just uses the closest tower and moves as it gets its business together, but having the same model do the same thing on different carriers sounds awfully "standard operation" to me.

[Cynthsdomingo]

I think the problem is with AT&T. I switched to Verizon a few months ago and I never had a problem. It’s a bit pricier than AT&T but it’s worth it. I think Verizon has the strongest signal we have in our area. Occasionally, the speed slows down but still tolerable.