What you need to know about Telstra internet outages

Internet outages are a pain. If you’re anything like me, they tend to hit at the most inconvenient time: streaming live sports, finalising some critical work, or about to pull off a clip-worthy moment in an online shooter.

The reality is that NBN outages will happen from time to time, so here’s what you need to know if you have a Telstra NBN outage.

So your ’net isn’t working. Before you jump on the phone with Telstra tech support, it’s worth narrowing down the cause of the outage. Generally speaking, there are five possible causes of an outage.

1. The outage could be specific to the device you’re on.
2. It could be your local network.
3. It could be caused by the NBN.
4. Or your provider’s network (like Telstra).
5. The specific site or service you’re trying to interact with that’s down at the time.

If one device on your home network is having issues connecting to the internet via Telstra NBN, you can identify this by testing on another device. Other device has no issues? The problem is likely with the first device. It’s a similar story if an online site or service isn’t working; if other sites and services do work as normal, the issue is likely with that specific site or service.

Troubleshooting the three types of network—local network, NBN or Telstra network—is a little trickier as a problem with one will look the same as a problem with another: namely, none of the devices on your home network will be able to connect to online sites or services.

It’s handy to have a SIM Only or Prepaid phone service handy when testing so you can check for outages online. A Telstra internet outage can be checked by visiting the dedicated Telstra outages page, then selecting the ‘Home internet’ option. Now input your address and confirm it from the drop-down menu.

While there isn’t a dedicated Telstra outage map, you should now see a notification as to whether there’s a Telstra network outage in your area. There is a catch here, though: if you’re among the first people to notice an outage, it may not yet be widespread enough for Telstra to inform you differently on this page. This page also tells you of potential upcoming outages in your area, which should also offer a date range and approximate times. Get in touch with Telstra tech support if you have any questions.

If your internet is down because of an NBN outage, you can visit the dedicated NBN outages page for more information. Punch in your address, confirm it from the drop-down selection, then click the ‘Check address’ button for more information. The results page will tell you whether there’s an outage detected as well as list any planned outages for the next 10 days.

It’s worth noting that routine network maintenance, either on the NBN or Telstra networks, tends to occur in the wee hours of the morning to minimise the impact on most homes.

Determining whether you have a local area network (LAN) outage compared to an NBN or Telstra outage can be a little trickier. Simplify it by performing the NBN and Telstra outage steps above beforehand. If there’s no reported outage on either network, it’s worth power cycling your networking equipment, whether that consists of a modem-router or a mix of networking equipment: modem, router, WiFi extender, mesh WiFi system and/or network switch (not to be confused with a Nintendo Switch).

Power cycling is a fancy term for turning your networking equipment off and on again, but wait at least 30 seconds per device. For multiple bits of networking gear, power off everything then start powering on devices from outside in: that is, modem, router, WiFi extender, mesh WiFi system and/or network switch. Telstra NBN support in particular will be able to better assist customers who use the Telstra Smart Modem provided at sign-up.

If your Telstra internet isn’t working afterwards, get in touch with Telstra tech support. It’s also worth paying attention to the lights on your networking gear, where red lights or no lights on critical indicators such as internet, WAN or DSL mean that an outage may be outside of your network.

Anecdotally, as someone who used to be a Telstra internet customer, I was often among the first to report an outage, which meant that the tech support people couldn’t yet see an outage on their end as either not enough people had reported having an issue or it otherwise hadn’t been properly identified. So if you feel you’ve identified an issue that’s not your home network and not reported on the NBN outages page, keep checking with the Telstra outages page above because it shouldn’t take too long to appear if there is an outage in your area.