With nbn Fibre to the Curb (FTTC), fibre runs to a small unit in a pit on your street, and the last stretch to your home uses the existing phone line. Inside, an nbn connection device plugs into your phone wall socket, and your router plugs into it. This guide shows you how to check it, and what to try when your FTTC service isn’t working.

First, check for an nbn outage. If there’s one in your area, there’s nothing to fix at home.

Keep it switched on

Your nbn connection device powers the equipment in the pit on your street, through the phone line. If it’s switched off or unplugged, your service can’t work, so leave it plugged into power and switched on all the time.

How it connects

  1. A phone cable goes from the device’s DSL (or phone line) port to your phone wall socket.
  2. An Ethernet cable goes from the device’s Ethernet port to the WAN port on your router.
  3. The device and your router are each plugged into power.

Your router needs a WAN Ethernet port, set to the connection type in your activation email: PPPoE, with the username and password from the email, or Dynamic IP (DHCP). See routers that work on the nbn.

What the lights mean

When your service is working, the device’s Power and Connection lights are solid, and its Ethernet light is on.

  • Power off: the device has no power. Check it’s plugged in and the power point is on.
  • Connection off or flashing: the device can’t connect to the nbn equipment in the street. Work through the checks below.
  • Ethernet off: the device can’t see your router. Check the Ethernet cable, and that your router is on.

If it won’t connect

  • Use the right wall socket. If you have more than one phone socket, the one the device was set up on may be the only one that works. Try the others.
  • Plug straight into the wall. Remove any double adapters, filters, splitters or extension cords between the device and the wall socket.
  • Unplug other phone-line equipment. Old phones, fax machines and back-to-base alarms on the same line can interfere.
  • Try another phone cable, ideally the one that came with the device, and keep it short.
  • Restart it. Turn off your router and the device, wait a minute, turn the device on first, wait until the Connection light is solid, then turn your router on.

Still not working? Report a problem or call us on 1800 663 977, and tell us which lights are on. If the fault is in the nbn network, we’ll raise it with nbn for you.