Internet dropouts ยท symptom
The internet has been dead since a particular day
A connection that stopped on a date and stayed stopped is a different problem from one that comes and goes, and it is usually faster to resolve. Something changed on that day. The job is to work out whether the change was at your place, in the street, or on your account.
Last reviewed: 15 August 2026 · by Alien IT Solutions
Which connection type are you on?
A connection that stopped on a date and stayed stopped is a different problem from one that comes and goes, and it is usually faster to resolve. Something changed on that day. The job is to work out whether the change was at your place, in the street, or on your account.
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
Check the Optical light. It splits the problem in two immediately.
A connection that died on a date and stayed dead usually has a single cause, and on FTTP the Optical light tells you which half of the world it is in. Optical off or red means the box is not reaching the nbn network, which is a network or account problem. Optical green means the fibre is fine and the problem is your router, your provider's session, or your account.
What to try yourself
- Read the Optical light before anything else, and the Alarm light after it.
- Check whether an outage was recorded for your area on the day it stopped.
- Check your account for a plan change, a failed payment or a disconnection order around that date. Services do get cancelled by accident, most often during a plan change or a move.
- Try your router in a different UNI-D port on the connection box.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on FTTP. My service stopped on DATE and has not returned. The Optical light is STATE. Please check whether my service is still provisioned and active at your end before we troubleshoot hardware.
Asking them to confirm the service is still provisioned first is the right order. It is quick, and an accidental cancellation is invisible from your side.
FTTN: Fibre to the Node, and Fibre to the Building
If the DSL light will not go solid, it is the line or the account.
On FTTN a service that stopped dead usually shows as a DSL, Broadband or Line light that will not synchronise. That means the modem cannot reach the node. The causes are a physical fault in the copper, work done in the street, or the service having been disconnected on your account.
What to try yourself
- Check whether the DSL light ever goes solid. If it never does, the modem is not reaching the node at all.
- Move the modem to the first phone socket in the house and remove any splitters or filters.
- Check your account and any recent emails for a plan change, a move order or a disconnection around that date.
- Ask a neighbour on the same technology whether they lost service at the same time, which points at street work.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on FTTN. My service stopped on DATE. The DSL light will not synchronise and I have tested at the first socket with everything else unplugged. Please confirm the service is still active on my account, then raise a fault with nbn.
FTTC: Fibre to the Curb
Read the Connection and DSL lights, in that order.
On FTTC the Connection light tells you whether the device is reaching nbn's equipment outside, and the DSL light tells you whether the broadband link is up. A service that died on a date usually has one of those two sitting wrong, and which one narrows the cause considerably.
What to try yourself
- Read the Connection light first. Off means it is not reaching the equipment outside. Solid red means a line fault, and nbn says to power the device off and call.
- Read the DSL light next. If Power and Connection are solid blue but DSL is off, nbn's guide sends you straight to your provider.
- Remember the kerbside unit is powered from your house. If your power was off for a long period around that date, allow the full startup time before judging it.
- Check your account for a plan change or disconnection around that date.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on FTTC. Service stopped on DATE. The Connection light is STATE and the DSL light is STATE. Please confirm my service is active, then raise a fault with nbn.
HFC: Hybrid Fibre Coaxial
Four lights, and the first one that is not solid green is your answer.
The four lights on an HFC box read Power, Downstream, Upstream and Online from top to bottom, and they come up in that order. Whichever one fails to go solid green is where the process stopped, and that is a precise thing to report.
What to try yourself
- Read all four lights and write down the state of each.
- Allow up to 30 minutes after a power cut for all four to come back to solid green, which is nbn's stated time.
- Remove any splitter between the wall outlet and the box.
- Check your account for a plan change or disconnection around that date.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on HFC. Service stopped on DATE. Power is STATE, Downstream is STATE, Upstream is STATE and Online is STATE. Please confirm the service is provisioned, then raise a fault.
Reading all four states in one sentence usually gets you past the first level of support immediately.
Fixed Wireless: nbn Fixed Wireless
Check the outdoor unit light and whether anything changed outside.
A fixed wireless service that stopped on a date has usually lost its link to the tower. That happens when the antenna is damaged or moved, when the cable to it fails, when something new blocks the path, or when the service is disconnected on your account.
What to try yourself
- Read the Power, Status, Outdoor Unit and UNI-D 1 lights and write down each one.
- Watch them for about 60 seconds to see whether they are cycling or steady, which is nbn's own instruction.
- Think about what happened around that date. Storms, tree work, building work next door and roof work are all common triggers.
- Check your account for a plan change or disconnection.
What to say to your provider
Say: I am on fixed wireless. Service stopped on DATE. The Outdoor Unit light is STATE and the Status light is STATE. Please confirm the service is active and arrange an inspection of the antenna and cabling.
On this connection type
- If you suspect storm damage to the antenna, report it. Do not go up to look at it, and do not send anyone up who is not equipped for that work.
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.
While you are on the phone to them anyway
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