WE826-T2 router

[masondw]

i have the WE826 router with a sprint sim card and my service will randomly drop out and i have to restart my router, any idea why it could be doing that? also the device i had my sim in before this never dropped out, just curious as to why it does that.

[joshb86]

I'm experiencing the same except with AT&T. I've updated the firmware and have repeated the setup tutorial several times which seems to solve the problem for a couple of days only. I assumed it was service related until I swapped our cell phone service to AT&T as well. The phones (Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL) always have a better signal and connection speed.

My signal isn't great at all, but I'd expect the device to have better signal than the cell phones. I guess my next step will be installing some external antenna's for testing.

[james1193]

Experiencing the same but with a Verizon SIM. I work all day from home and have dropped several VoIP calls per day. After 30 seconds or so, it will reconnect. I checked the modem logs in the Rooter web interface but there is no mention of a disconnect. It seems to have just started a week or 2 ago, though I haven't updated firmware or made any changes around the time it started.

[james1193]

Just had another thought after reading the other thread about power consumption - are you using the included 1.5A power adapter? I've heard others say that may not provide sufficient power, maybe that is causing our issues. I have a 5A supply lying around that I'm going to try and see if that fixes the issue.

[joshb86]

I won't speak for @masondw, but I'm certain mine is the updated 2a. I'll verify tonight. I also ordered a set of external antennas which should be here late this week. Once I rule out my weak signal being the stability issue the power angle is definitely a possible concern.

[xdavidx]

Which modem are each of you using? An MC7455, for instance, won't use as much power as an EM7565. Maybe a 2a adapter is okay for the MC7455, but a 2.5a needed for the EM7565. Just speaking in theory here.

[JimHelms]

Insufficient power can certainly cause disconnect issues especially when a modem is under load. Thus, the weaker the cellular signals, the more power is required as the modem attempts to compensate.

I often question the quality of the OEM power adapters that come with the WE/WG routers and if they are actually performing as rated. They are cheap power adapters....

With that said, replacing the power adapter with a quality adapter can be one of the easiest fixes for a connection issue.

According to Sierra, power consumption can also depend on bands which I found interesting.

Power for Band 61.png

[xdavidx]

According to Sierra, power consumption can also depend on bands which I found interesting.

That is an interesting find. I wonder if they truly mean B66 is special or if they mean it has 20MHz available, so more power to deal with the higher throughput? Although, if that were the case, why would they single out B66 as a primary carrier, when other carriers can provide 20MHz?

B66 isn't the highest frequency band, otherwise I would theorize that maybe it takes more power to do the processing to weed out noise. But maybe it is one of the higher frequency bands that has 20MHz carriers and has multiple carriers available in the same band.

I would gladly upgrade to the biggest AC/DC adapter available if I could get 20+20+20 carrier aggregation!

I have another thread on power consumption testing. I just got my DC testing equipment delivered yesterday. As time allows, I'll try to test the WE1326 adapter and compare it to others I have lying around the house. I can't test 60 MHz of bandwidth, unfortunately, but I can reliably test 30 MHz (sometimes 40MHz) over a medium signal strength connection, hence higher transmit power requirements. I can also test to see what oddities show up in modem behavior at the edges, where more power is required than what can be delivered. I'll do this by increasing DC cable length.

[joshb86]

Which modem are each of you using? An MC7455, for instance, won't use as much power as an EM7565. Maybe a 2a adapter is okay for the MC7455, but a 2.5a needed for the EM7565. Just speaking in theory here.

I'm using the MC7455 and did verify I have the 2A adapter. I believe my issue may be more related to signal quality, so I'm going to correct that issue first. I ordered a set of these: https://thewirelesshaven.com/shop/antennas/4g-lte ... l-antenna/

I'll be out of town for the next week so I won't get to install them right away.

[xdavidx]

I'm using the MC7455 and did verify I have the 2A adapter. I believe my issue may be more related to signal quality, so I'm going to correct that issue first. I ordered a set of these: https://thewirelesshaven.com/shop/antennas/4g-lte ... l-antenna/

Those are the antennas I'm using too. Good antennas.

What is your signal quality with your current antennas? Are they outside the house or inside?

[joshb86]

Those are the antennas I'm using too. Good antennas.

What is your signal quality with your current antennas? Are they outside the house or inside?

Inside with my current antennas (paddles from a cradlepoint I used to have), I'm getting between -120 & -124 RSRP, -10 RSRQ, and -80 RSSI.

Weird thing I've noticed is that my cell phones which are also ATT, I get much better signal and speed because they are picking up on the closest tower. Currently, no matter what I do I can't get my WE826-T to pickup on the same tower. This is where I'm hoping the new antenna's will also help.

[xdavidx]

Inside with my current antennas (paddles from a cradlepoint I used to have), I'm getting between -120 & -124 RSRP, -10 RSRQ, and -80 RSSI.

Weird thing I've noticed is that my cell phones which are also ATT, I get much better signal and speed because they are picking up on the closest tower. Currently, no matter what I do I can't get my WE826-T to pickup on the same tower. This is where I'm hoping the new antenna's will also help.

Do you plan on having the new antennas outside? It might be difficult to use them otherwise, as they are directional. I can pick up signals inside with mine, but they are much weaker than outside.

[joshb86]

Do you plan on having the new antennas outside? It might be difficult to use them otherwise, as they are directional. I can pick up signals inside with mine, but they are much weaker than outside.

Yeah, definitely plan on roof mounting them. For fun and to make my wife question me... I dropped a car Jack in the living room and mounted the antenna's on the handle.

[xdavidx]

For fun and to make my wife question me... I dropped a car Jack in the living room and mounted the antenna's on the handle.

Something tells me that you achieved both goals.

[james1193]

I'm using an EM7565 modem, and still getting disconnected with a 5A power supply. It seems my signal strength is good, though I am using the included stock antennas. Do we still think this is a power issue or perhaps something with the firmware or configuration?

Network : LTE
CSQ : 28
Signal Strength : 90%
RSSI : -57 dBm
ECIO : -9.2 (RSRQ) dB
RSCP : -88 (RSRP) dBm

[xdavidx]

@james1193: That sounds frustrating.

Thoughts:

- Do you have a PC where you can run a constant ping to see if Verizon is putting you in a weird state due to inactivity? Something like this in a command prompt window: ping -t google.com

- Far out idea, but maybe the source power to the power supply is variable? Doubt it, but thought I'd mention it.

- What do at!impref? and at!image? return?

- Is there any pattern to the disconnects? Time between disconnects? Time of day?

- Another far out idea would be thermal overload. You could try running AT!PCTEMP? right after it disconnects.

- I just found that there is a command to read the voltage to the modem: AT!PCVOLT? I've never used it, but something you could run to see if you are getting consistent values.

We have 3 main power regulators at play here:

1) Source power to your house
2) AC/DC adapter
3) Power supply on in the router

Getting the voltage that the modem is reporting would tell us something about (3). If there is something wrong with the house voltage that the the AC/DC adapter and the router power supply can't handle, then it could shed light on that. In theory, it could tell us if the AC/DC adapter is having issues, but since you have tried multiple and have the same results, I'd be inclined to rule out that as a cause.

[JimHelms]

Run the follow command and post the results:

Code: Select all

AT!GSTATUS?

[james1193]

Thank you all for your input.. Below are the results of the AT commands. While I logged in to and navigating the router's Web UI, it happened to disconnect on me, and it seemed like the entire router froze up. After attempting to refresh the page a few times, everything came back to life, and the internet was available again. According to the uptime command (ran over SSH) the router did NOT reboot. I am starting to wonder if this is more of a router/firmware issue than a modem issue. While this occurred, I lost approximately 20 pings to google.com.

Current firmware version is GoldenOrb_2019-03-10.

Code: Select all

AT!PCVOLT?
Volt state: Normal
Power supply voltage: 3572 mV (ADC: 10405)

AT!PCTEMP?
Temp state: Normal
Temperature: 45.00 C

at!impref?
!IMPREF: 
 preferred fw version:    01.08.04.00
 preferred carrier name:  GENERIC
 preferred config name:   GENERIC_002.012_000
 current fw version:      01.08.04.00
 current carrier name:    GENERIC
 current config name:     GENERIC_002.012_000

at!image?
TYPE SLOT STATUS LRU FAILURES UNIQUE_ID   BUILD_ID
FW   1    GOOD   2   0 0      ?_?         01.08.04.00_?
FW   2    GOOD   1   0 0      ?_?         01.07.02.00_?
FW   3    EMPTY  0   0 0                  
FW   4    EMPTY  0   0 0                  
Max FW images: 4
Active FW image is at slot 1

TYPE SLOT STATUS LRU FAILURES UNIQUE_ID   BUILD_ID
PRI  FF   GOOD   0   0 0      002.008_002 01.07.02.00_ATT
PRI  FF   GOOD   0   0 0      002.012_000 01.08.04.00_GENERIC
Max PRI images: 50

AT!GSTATUS?
!GSTATUS: 
Current Time:  602423		Temperature: 45
Reset Counter: 1		Mode:        ONLINE         
System mode:   LTE        	PS state:    Attached     
LTE band:      B13    		LTE bw:      10 MHz  
LTE Rx chan:   5230		LTE Tx chan: 23230
LTE SSC1 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC2 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC3 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC4 state:NOT ASSIGNED
EMM state:     Registered     	Normal Service 
RRC state:     RRC Connected  
IMS reg state: No Srv  		

PCC RxM RSSI:  -60		PCC RxM RSRP:  -88
PCC RxD RSSI:  -57		PCC RxD RSRP:  -84
Tx Power:      --		TAC:         6005 (24581)
RSRQ (dB):     -9.8		Cell ID:     01786103 (24666371)
SINR (dB):     18.2

[JimHelms]

You are receiving only a signal carrier band 13 at 10HMz. Your signal stats look good.

You may need to update your modem to the latest Sierra Wireless firmware which was released a couple of weeks ago.

[james1193]

Ok, I'll have to order a USB to M.2 adapter but will give it a try. Is this a good guide to follow? [url]http://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=78[/url]

Also, just curious - when you said I'm only receiving band 13 at 10mHz, what should I expect to see? A 20mHz band, multiple 10mHz bands with CA, or something else?

[JimHelms]

Ok, I'll have to order a USB to M.2 adapter but will give it a try. Is this a good guide to follow? [url]http://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=78[/url]

I have just updated that topic and link to the latest firmware.

Also, just curious - when you said I'm only receiving band 13 at 10mHz, what should I expect to see? A 20mHz band, multiple 10mHz bands with CA, or something else?

You should be able to see the Secondary carrier bands that are used for Carrier Aggregation. You can review [url=http://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2824&sid=c45093c55e0c9b4792495239715f26cc#p2813] THIS[/url] post as an example.

[james1193]

WOW, I didn't realize you authorized that guide when I posted the link. Thank you so much for your contributions and advice here. I'll post an update in a few days after I get a M.2/USB adapter and have a better idea how things are with the modem firmware update. Any thoughts/suggestions on possibly upgrading the router firmware as well, or should I leave that as is?

[xdavidx]

While I logged in to and navigating the router's Web UI, it happened to disconnect on me, and it seemed like the entire router froze up. After attempting to refresh the page a few times, everything came back to life, and the internet was available again. According to the uptime command (ran over SSH) the router did NOT reboot. I am starting to wonder if this is more of a router/firmware issue than a modem issue. While this occurred, I lost approximately 20 pings to google.com.

You could try running a constant ping to the router's IP address to see if the router can't communicate at the same time the issue happens.

Since you have SSH access, you could probably write a little script to log the voltage and temperature every second to a file. However, the temperature looked fine and if you took that reading near when it froze, I doubt it was temperature related, since it wouldn't have had time to cool down that fast. Voltage is a longshot, but I'm not really sure what else could be causing the freezing. It would help to find out if the router is freezing up or just the modem. The ping I mentioned above could help narrow it down. It is *possible* that some functions are freezing up and not others, so even if the ping works, something else could be locked up in the router at the time, but if ping locks up (ping to the router, not to the internet), then you know something is going on with the router.

[JimHelms]

While I logged in to and navigating the router's Web UI, it happened to disconnect on me, and it seemed like the entire router froze up. After attempting to refresh the page a few times, everything came back to life, and the internet was available again.

Are you running the WiFiX version of GoldenOrb. If so, I wonder if this may somehow be associated with the internal ping/reboot modem script.

You might want to try a standard GoldenOrb build.

I will also use the Firmware Recovery Method to reload the standard build. Once loaded, I would use GOldenOrb's web UI and reload the firmware a second time. Make sure the box is UNCHECKED to SAVE SETTINGS).

[xdavidx]

Are you running the WiFiX version of GoldenOrb. If so, I wonder if this may somehow be associated with the internal ping/reboot modem script.

Maybe the clock is off, so it is doing it during the day instead of the real 3 AM?

[james1193]

Finally got around to trying the modem firmware update this morning, but I keep getting error 0x0, and it doesn't appear the modem is even being detected by Windows 10 - I don't even see it listed anywhere in device manager.. I've tried with the USB adapter, and also using the laptop's mini PCI-e slot (with the M2 adapter I was using in the WE826). Any tips for Win 10? Otherwise I might dig up an older computer tonight and try with that.

I've also set up Nirsoft's "PingInfoView" to run a continuous ping against my router (192.168.1.1) and Google (8.8.8.8) and save the results to a text file.. It's been running all weekend, and I haven't missed as many pings as I expected to see. I seem to have observed more disconnects/timeouts than I have missed pings. It's even noticeable when browsing the web, where pages seem to take forever loading but when I click refresh it comes up almost immediately. I don't think I was using a WiFix firmware but flashed again with GoldenOrb to be sure.

[xdavidx]

When you say disconnects, do you mean modem disconnects? I am not sure how you could have a modem disconnect and not miss any pings, unless the frequency of pings is too infrequent. Are they run every second? And is there a difference between the router pings and Google pings?