Hi @pamelanorth4, I presume your phone service is NBN VOIP through one of the RSP’s and your ‘cordless phone’ is connected to your modem-router?
Some of us have problems whereby when there is a power failure or NBN maintenance period the VOIP does not reconnect and re-register the way it should.
Assuming that is your case, two ways you can check. One is most modem-routers with VOIP support have a small phone icon that will be lit if your VOIP is registered and working. The alternative is to log into your RSP account and (RSP dependent where and if they display this) see if your VOIP service is registered. If it is not registered rebooting your modem-router should re-register it.
Further to what @PhilT has indicated, one can also try reset your NBN router if this is where your phone cable is connected. Most have a reset button (may be a pin hole one needs to use a ball point pen to push), push the resest button for 5-10 seconds. The NBN router will reset and after a few minutes (could take 5 or more minutes) check to see if the phone line works again.
Warning Will Robinson, @pamelanorth4 and @phb (I know you know, but),
A reset returns all settings to factory default. Not to be done unless one has all of the settings to reconnect at hand and knows how to manage them, or the particular modem-router has a backup/restore facility to help in doing that, or the RSP has total control of that unit and you are on the phone with them (a fully charged mobile will be handy to do that).
TPG is, I believe but could be corrected, one of the RSPs that provides locked parameters into their supplied modem-routers and ships them to customers.
For TPG VOIP services no DIY products are welcome so I can only assume you have one of those ‘locked-up’ boxes.
In contrast it appears TPG customers without VOIP services can BYO and the setups are on the TPG web, accessible by a handy fully charged mobile
Although the OP may have a similarly locked-up modem-router from her ISP, advising someone to do a reset (eg factory reset pushing the reset button) without knowing if they have a locked-up modem-router and their tech capability to get it going again if not, can be a bad experience for them if they follow along but do not know the how to do’s.
For the locked-up variety a reset is probably the same as a reboot in a practical sense. For the others, not so much and a reboot (power cycle or switch off/on) is safer for the casual user.
I’m with @PhilT in it is a potentially risky strategy to hard reset a modem without first having a full knowledge of a users installation.
Experience over many years suggests that if a local soft reset does not cue the problem the solution is often more complex than a hard reset. ADSL VoIP and NBN HFC included. Something ISP/RSP might need to assist with.
It’s also worth checking before calling for help that the household cordless phone is not at fault, usually by trying the VOIP port with a dumb phone that you know works. Just in case.
It is the NBN connection box which is reset and not the RSP or privately purchased modem/router.* Doing a reset on the modem/router would be very risky as any settings would be lost…and the modem/router would be reset to factory settings meaning it won’t function until settings are changed. Never do a reset on the modem/router unless ones knows what they are doing.
The NBN connection box is thing the modem/router connects into. The NBN website provides information on the connection box for each MTM technology.
I’d previously tried (twice) turning off modem/router, waiting a few minutes and turning it back on again without success. Following your post I gave it another try and, so far so good, I’m connected again. Thanks for your support.
Yesterday the NBN set a new standard for me worth passing on since my RSP is Aussiebroadband, known for exceptional support.
09:16 - HFC connection goes down. It happens.
09:45 - no outages reported, I run the diagnostics that all fail so lodge a fault.
10:00 - ring ABB support to confirm if there are known outages not published. Answer, no outages reported so it must be something in my house like the modem or less likely a lose cable connection, but they asked me to check, reset, blah blah. NBN booking made for next available, 2 days hence. Not impressed my neighbours service is also down as a significant clue.
10:30 - NBN publishes an outage
10:46 - updated to note outage from a local power failure
(no known power failures except at the NBN facility)
11:00 - HFC up
11:55 - HFC down
18:00 +/- - HFC up; ABB cancels my personal fault ticket in microseconds
(noticed by happenstance)
00:08 - NBN formally cancels their down time
Between 10:46 and 00:08 no updates. What could they tell us excepting one or more of no or failed UPS and/or no spares on hand, and maybe their techs were working from home while isolating?
All that while mobile coverage (Telstra wholesale network) did its best to be minimally useful and fail during calls. The lovely lady I was talking to for 20 minutes to sort something probably thinks I am a cretin for seeming to hang up on her; I heard her, suddenly she could not hear me and all I could do was hang up Reconnecting to her was not possible.
National infrastructure? More like national joke and dark comedy.
Yes, I to need to sit near a window or go outside. Optus but Telstra Is worse. Being talked through a modem test/fault finding over the mobile network has always been a challenge. I forewarn the tech in South Africa, they are on ‘borrowed time’!
It’s not just the NBN. Rodents, water and 40 year old copper. ADSL2, when nothing else will do.
We once again had our nbn satellite “service” restored after lunch today, after being absent since midday yesterday. I rebooted the router numerous times in an attempt at restoring the service, but no luck until after lunch today.
I’m seriously thinking about going to a minimal data plan and using my phone as a hotspot for most of our internet access. Sky Muster annoyingly unreliable, I’d really hate to be relying on it as the only way to get online.
The sad reality is that for some it is the only way, for others it shouldn’t be but it is and for others like yourself you have another option but it adds more cost again to getting online. Bad planning, bad implementation, bad financial decisions taken to save costs but in the long run have cost much more (and not all of it in a money sense) by a Government only looking to win elections…that’s really the saddest part, the shortsightedness of our “Leaders” and those who voted that way.
After a number of NBN HFC fails since December totalling about 75 hours with one racking up 39 hours, and the last about 4, I asked Aussiebroadband if there was anything I could do except complaining to them hoping they would complain to NBNCo. The repetitious failure is a ‘power failure’ that does not seem to affect anyone in the area except the NBN facility; the 39 hours episode was triggered by a storm that did take local power down for not too long, but might have damaged their equipment and I suspect NBN spares might all come from Brisbane or Sydney by truck, economy service. Or nobody could find the keys to the locker?
The ABB support agent, who was good as could be, suggested I complain to the TIO. Sending in a well documented complaint about NBNCo, no surprise, since the NBN is a wholesale supplier I can only complain about my RSP even though they are innocent bystanders in the scheme of things and any complaint costs them.
The NBN likewise washes its hands of its problems with the brown smelly runoff deflected to the RSPs for action.
This is yet another revelation exactly how cunning the coalition was in positioning the NBNCo to be essentially outside the ‘law’ and untouchable while throwing their retailers and us consumers under the bus.
That has been the case for a long time - resellers of Telstra’s DSL were in the same bucket, you couldn’t complain about the copper in the street or the DSLAM in the exchange to the people who were in a position to fix it, only the reseller.
… not just NBN it seems - for the last decade++ it seems to be a theme to configure the responsibility and conditions matrix and dependencies of most ombudsman/etc accountable entities to be mostly unaccountable.
Re HFC though, as one of the array of excrement sandwiches on offer from NBN, anecdotally this one appears to be feline in origin …
If you read their blab about what complaints they take you might get put off but just submit it and they will digest it. I’m not sure it will do anything but the more people who do complain might bring about some change particularly about getting some sort of Customer Service Guarantees in place for the nbn™.
ACMA has a very limited scope and will not accept complaints outside. A bit broader than this but it shows how limited they are, Click through to their complaints page.
Reconnecting to her was not possible.
