The invention relates to a distribution cabinet which is usually set up outdoors and accommodates the technical, for example electrical or optical, distribution installations for, for example, weak-current systems, for example telephone systems, with associated power-supply devices and cable-terminal / connection devices for a certain area, and also to a method for exchanging, in particular increasing the size of, the body of a distribution cabinet, the exchange of which body is unproblematical and with which method the distribution cabinet remains at the original location and consequently no new installation approval or construction approval is necessary. This takes place by a method for exchanging, in particular increasing the size of, the body of a distribution cabinet set up outdoors in which the body of the old distribution cabinet is removed, a new base, which is hollow when viewed in plan view, is slipped over the old installation frame and the old base and set down on the underlying ground and aligned, and a new body, which has at least as much interior space as the old body, is slipped from above over the old installation frame, aligned and fastened.