Internet dropouts ยท symptom
The internet drops out then comes back on its own
How long it takes to come back is a measurement, and it tells you which piece of equipment re-established the connection. Time it once and you will know more than the first two people you speak to at your provider.
Last reviewed: 15 August 2026 · by Alien IT Solutions
Which connection type are you on?
How long it takes to come back is a measurement, and it tells you which piece of equipment re-established the connection. Time it once and you will know more than the first two people you speak to at your provider.
The answer to this symptom is genuinely different on each of the five nbn technologies, because the physical thing that fails is different. All five are written out below. Jump to yours, or read the lot.
Jump to your connection type
Not sure which one you have?
Look at the box your router plugs into. A separate nbn box with Power, Optical and Alarm lights means fibre to the premises. Four lights reading Power, Downstream, Upstream and Online means HFC. Blue lights on a small unit means fibre to the curb. An antenna on the roof means fixed wireless. And if there is no nbn box at all, only a modem from your provider plugged into a phone socket, you are on fibre to the node.
The light decoder walks you through it, or read the longer explanation of the connection types.
FTTP: Fibre to the Premises
Time it. On fibre, a long recovery points somewhere specific.
When an FTTP service drops and returns on its own, the question is which device did the recovering. If the Optical light on the nbn connection box went red and came back green, the fibre link itself dropped and re-established, which is a network side event worth reporting. If Optical never changed, the fibre held and something after it recovered, which usually means your router or your provider's session.
What to try yourself
- Time the outage with your phone, from the moment it goes to the moment it returns. Under a minute, a couple of minutes, and ten minutes are three different faults.
- Watch the Optical light through a whole dropout. Whether it changes is the single most valuable fact you can collect on FTTP.
- Check whether your router restarted, by looking at its uptime after a dropout. If uptime resets, the router rebooted and the connection did not necessarily fail at all.
- Plug a computer straight into the router with an Ethernet cable and turn that computer's Wi-Fi off. Leave it that way through the next few dropouts. If the wired machine keeps working while the wireless ones drop, the problem is your Wi-Fi and no amount of arguing with your provider will fix it. If the wired machine drops too, it is the connection, and you now have proof.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on FTTP. My service drops for about X minutes and returns by itself, and the Optical light on the nbn connection box goes red while it is down.
If Optical does not change, say that instead, and ask them to check whether your session is being dropped at their end. It is a different fault and a different team.
FTTN: Fibre to the Node, and Fibre to the Building
That is your modem re-synchronising, and it means the copper dropped.
On FTTN, a dropout that lasts roughly thirty seconds to three minutes and then fixes itself is the signature of the modem losing synchronisation with the node and negotiating it again. It has to re-establish the link from scratch, which is why it takes that long and why it is so consistent.
This matters because it tells you the fault is on the line, not in your Wi-Fi, not in your router's settings, and not with the websites you were using. Every re-sync is a countable event, and a count is what gets a fault escalated.
What to try yourself
- Watch the DSL, Broadband or Line light during a dropout. If it goes out and then blinks before going solid again, you have watched a re-sync happen.
- Count them. Most modems record the number of re-syncs or disconnections on a status page, and that number is the most persuasive thing you can bring to a provider.
- Unplug everything else from every phone socket in the house for a day, including any old handset or fax, and see whether the count falls.
- Write down the date and time of every dropout and how long it lasted, for at least three days. A list of timestamps is the difference between a fault your provider can escalate to nbn and a phone call that ends in try restarting your router.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on FTTN and my modem is re-synchronising. It drops for about two minutes and comes back. My modem has logged X disconnections in Y days.
A re-sync count is hard to argue with and hard to close as no fault found. Ask them to raise it with nbn and give you the fault reference.
FTTC: Fibre to the Curb
Watch the DSL light. Blinking then solid is a re-sync.
FTTC works the same way as FTTN over its short copper run, so a dropout of a minute or two that recovers on its own is usually the connection device re-synchronising. nbn's guide states that a blinking blue DSL light means synchronisation or a software update is in progress, and that it should settle to solid blue.
One cause of repeated re-syncs on FTTC is specific and easy to miss: a telephone left off the hook, or a non compatible device still plugged into a phone socket, which shows as the Connection light alternating red and blue.
What to try yourself
- Watch the Connection and DSL lights through a dropout and write down exactly what each did.
- If you ever see the Connection light alternating red and blue, unplug everything from every telephone wall socket in the house, then plug things back one at a time.
- Time the recovery. FTTC can take up to 15 minutes to come back fully after a restart, which is longer than people expect and not in itself a fault.
- Write down the date and time of every dropout and how long it lasted, for at least three days. A list of timestamps is the difference between a fault your provider can escalate to nbn and a phone call that ends in try restarting your router.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on FTTC. The DSL light drops and re-synchronises several times a day. Please raise a fault with nbn and ask them to check the line and the kerbside unit.
HFC: Hybrid Fibre Coaxial
The box is re-establishing its channels. Check whether it reboots.
An HFC connection box that loses the cable signal has to find its channels again, and that takes a short time during which you have no service. If it happens repeatedly, the usual causes are noise getting into the cable, a poor connector, or a signal level that is at the edge of what the box can work with.
There is one state that is not a fault and is worth ruling out first. nbn documents that Downstream and Upstream flashing green means a firmware update is running, and that it can take up to 10 minutes.
What to try yourself
- Watch all four lights through a dropout. Which one stops being solid green tells you where it failed.
- Check whether the Power light restarts, which means the box rebooted rather than merely losing signal. A box that reboots repeatedly is a hardware or power fault.
- Check whether it happens at the same time as neighbours' outages, which points at street equipment.
- Write down the date and time of every dropout and how long it lasted, for at least three days. A list of timestamps is the difference between a fault your provider can escalate to nbn and a phone call that ends in try restarting your router.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on HFC. The connection box loses signal several times a day. Please check my upstream and downstream power levels and my signal to noise ratio, and tell me whether they are within spec.
Signal levels are recorded and checkable. Asking for them by name moves the conversation past restart your router.
Fixed Wireless: nbn Fixed Wireless
The link is re-associating with the tower.
A fixed wireless service that drops briefly and recovers is usually losing and regaining its link to the tower. That can be caused by interference, by something moving in the signal path, such as a tree in the wind, or by a link that has too little margin to absorb normal variation.
nbn's guide gives an instruction that is precisely aimed at this: watch the indicator lights for about 60 seconds and check they are not changing or resetting. Lights that cycle are telling you the link keeps re-establishing, and that is a different report from lights that sit in the wrong state.
What to try yourself
- Watch the Status and Outdoor Unit lights for a full 60 seconds and note whether they change, which is nbn's own recommended check.
- Note whether dropouts coincide with wind. Trees moving in the signal path are a common and fixable cause.
- Check whether anything has been built or has grown between your antenna and the tower since the service was installed.
- Write down the date and time of every dropout and how long it lasted, for at least three days. A list of timestamps is the difference between a fault your provider can escalate to nbn and a phone call that ends in try restarting your router.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on fixed wireless. My connection re-associates several times a day and the lights on the connection box cycle when it happens. Please check my signal level and whether my line of sight to the tower is still clear.
On this connection type
- Whatever you conclude about trees or alignment, do not go up to the antenna. Report it and let them send someone equipped for it.
Then, whatever they tell you
Providers work from a script, and the script assumes you have not checked anything. Say this early and you skip most of it.
- Ask them to raise a fault with nbn, and ask for the fault reference number. A fault that was never raised cannot be tracked, and this is where most calls quietly end.
- Ask what the line is actually doing at their end right now, and whether they can see dropouts in their own logs. They usually can.
- If they close it without fixing it, ask for the complaint to be escalated internally, and get the complaint reference in writing.
If it stays broken and they stop being useful, the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman is free for you to use, and providers do respond to it. Here is how that works.
Before you touch anything
- Do not go up a ladder or onto a roof. That includes fixed wireless antennas and dishes. nbn's own fixed wireless guide tells you to contact your provider rather than touch an outdoor unit mounted more than 2 metres off the ground. There is nothing you can fix up there that is worth a fall.
- Do not open the nbn connection box, and do not touch the pit or the lead-in cable. That equipment belongs to nbn, not to you or your provider. Fibre terminations carry laser light that you cannot see and should not look into. Opening it can also end your service and leave you liable for the repair.
- Leave the backup battery alone beyond what your provider's own script tells you. If you have the optional Power Supply with Battery Backup, follow your provider's instructions for it and nothing more.
- Burning smell, scorch marks, or a modem too hot to touch: stop. Switch it off at the wall, unplug it, and do not plug it back in. Tell your provider it needs replacing. There is no troubleshooting step that comes before this.
Where this comes from
Every light state and every figure on this page comes from the sources below, each checked on 15 August 2026. Where a provider's guide disagrees with nbn's, the provider is describing their own hardware and you should follow theirs.
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