NBN put the box in the wrong place. We move the NBN box, or run one cable instead.

Sound familiar?

The box is where the cable came in, not where the house needs it

The box went where the cable came in, and the router is stuck out there with it.

Before anything moves, we check whether it needs to. Often one cable to where the router should live does the job for less. Where it doesn't, we move the NBN box itself, across Sydney.

1. If NBN hasn’t installed yet, get it right on the day. Ask the installer to put the inside box where you want it, and mark the wall with an X before they arrive. Once it is in, moving it is our job, not theirs. What the day looks like, and how to get the cabling in before it, is on the FTTP upgrade cabling page.
2. On FTTP, the outside box stays. The grey box on the wall is where the fibre ends. What moves is the white box inside. Tell the NBN tech to leave the outside one where it is, then we run the inside.
3. Often the cheaper fix is not to move the box. Run one Cat6 cable from the box to where you want the router and leave the box where it is. Most garage installs are fixed this way. That is a data cabling job, and it is the first option on every quote.
4. On FTTC and FTTN, don’t add a second socket. Two sockets on one line is a bridge tap: speed drops, dropouts start. Move the one socket, don’t add another.
5. Fibre can’t be spliced. If the new spot is further from the outside box than the lead reaches, it is a new lead, and the connectors don’t survive being pulled through walls. Photos and a distance tell us which.
6. The inside box needs a power point and has to stay inside and dry. It can’t go on an outside wall.
7. Send photos and a distance. Most box moves get quoted from three photos and a number of metres, no visit.

Recognise it?

Where the box is now, and what moving it gets you

The usual suspects

Where NBN puts the box, and where it should go

The same handful of situations come up on nearly every call.

• The box is where the cable came in:

  Garage, wardrobe, a child's bedroom. Nobody asked where the router should go.

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  garage, wardrobe, the wrong side of the house, a child’s bedroom. Nobody asked where the router should go.

• Concrete slab, no underfloor.

  With no underfloor, the run goes through the roof or outside in conduit.

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  The run has to go through the roof or outside in conduit.

• Double brick, or brick veneer with no cavity

  No cavity on the path you want, so the route changes.

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  on the path you want.

• A deck, cladding or a renovation

  A box that's been built over can't be reached or tested.

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  has buried or enclosed the outside box.

• The old Foxtel or phone socket

  It isn't rated for HFC, and the connection shows it.

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  is being used for HFC and it isn’t rated for it.

• A second socket was added on FTTC

  That's a bridge tap, and it's why the service drops out.

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  and now the service drops out.

• Not enough fibre lead

  Fibre can't be spliced, so a longer reach means a new lead.

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  to reach the new spot.

This page is one part of our guide to the NBN connection box, which covers what the box, sometimes called the NTD, is and does.

How it works

Moving the NBN box to another room, or across the house

Cheapest first. Every version ends with the router where the house needs it, and where wifi coverage is the real problem the WiFi Technician page’s mesh advice applies and we quote both together.

1. 1
   

   Cable to the router, leave the box.

   One Cat6 cable from the box to a data point where the router should live. Same day, no new NBN lead, and it is what fixes most garage installs. That is a data cabling job, and it is the first option on every quote we send.

2. 2
   

   Move the inside box to the next room.

   Along the same wall, or through it into the room behind. The lead is extended through the wall or the cavity, a new wall plate goes on, and the box is refitted and tested. The outside box does not move, so nothing has to be reordered from NBN.

3. 3
   

   Move it across the house.

   New conduit along the outside wall or a run through the roof, the existing data cable used as a draw wire where the house has one, a new fibre lead or coax pulled through, and wall boxes where it passes through the wall.

4. 4
   

   Move the outside box.

   The biggest version: the outside box moved, the lead re-routed back to the pit, and NBN's lead reordered.

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   Sever the conduit, pull the cable back to the pit, re-route it and re-terminate. The biggest version of the job, the one that needs NBN's lead reordered, and the one that overlaps with NBN conduit installation.

A real job from the field

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Sutherland Shire, NSW · HFC · Filmed on site, 6 min

The box was in the front bedroom, and he wanted it in his office at the back.

On HFC in the Sutherland Shire. The coax was taped to conduit, pushed through the roof space from the front of the house to the back, and fed down the office wall. Outside, the run was clipped neatly out of sight. The plate became a double, and every light on the box was solid when we left.

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The Sutherland Shire, on HFC. The NBN box had been put in the front bedroom, about two metres in from the outside box, and the customer wanted it in his office at the back of the house.

Coaxial cable was taped to a length of conduit and pushed through the roof space from the front of the house to the back, then fed down the cavity of the office wall. Outside, the run was clipped neatly down the wall and into the box, where it cannot be seen from the house side. The single wall plate in the office became a double, a compression connector went on the cable, and the box was connected in its new spot.

Every light on the box was solid when we left.