SFR Neufbox - internet, wifi but no phone line!

[Hereford]

FT/orange also have an English helpline for phone and internet queries  (0800 36 47 75).  Just used it as French orange helpline staff so rude.  Result: they agreed our line was "unstable" (it kept crashing) and sent two technicians within 48 hours who gave us a new connector (that is what they called it) on our box outside and we are now getting a stable connection that does not crash.  Fantastic.

We do not use a Livebox.  We have computers in two different places - too far to wifi second one and very thick walls anyway.  We have a router on each and just unplug from the phone socket the one we are not using amd plug in the other. Works like a dream.  We do not have or want tv or phone.  We use skype and/or  Coucoutel and have (French) tv by satellite.

Mrs H

[sueyh]

Hello, me again! Still no telephone line, had a phone call two weeks ago from a Mme Jamale who told us not to worry she would get the technicians to telephone us. Heard nothing from them but today received a letter stating that they cannot fix the problem. They have also asked us to return the SFR Neufbox! However, when we took delivery of the Neufbox we sent back our speedtouch modem in return. What should I do????

[Danny]

[quote user="sueyh"]Hello, me again! Still no telephone line, had a phone call two weeks ago from a Mme Jamale who told us not to worry she would get the technicians to telephone us. Heard nothing from them but today received a letter stating that they cannot fix the problem. They have also asked us to return the SFR Neufbox! However, when we took delivery of the Neufbox we sent back our speedtouch modem in return. What should I do????[/quote]

call it a day, send the box back and go with Orange....

Danny

[Danny]

Suey
if you want to benefit from included unlimited (VOIP) calls with Orange (63 countries and 1 hr per month to French mobiles), you need to subscribe to one of their adsl packs - various options here but it generally works out more expensive than SFR or Free or others. But if it works, then maybe it is worth it.

Danny

 

[BJSLIV]

As Suey lives in the far North she may find the Nordnet offer of interest. It gives access to the FT Network, its 100% owned by FT, but at a  lower price.

 It does have the  (dis)advantage of requiring a real phone line........

[sueyh]

Are you with Nordnet BJSLIV?  Are they good?

[sueyh]

Have bitten the bullet and gone over to Orange.  What service!  Fantastic!  What time would you like our technician to call Madame?  Can't believe I have put up with the useless lack of service from SFR for the past four months!!  Its a bit more expensive but we'll have a phone!  Woohoo!!!!!!!

Thanks for all the help from you patient posters over the past months.

Suey

[raynipper]

I know this is an old thread but I seem to have the same problem updating from an all working AOL modem to a fairly new but second hand SFR NeufBox.

Even religiously following the procedure on the CD. Reset and reboot and still the 'tel' light won't come on. When I access the new box parameters it just says "Phone service not activated".

Ray.

[Quillan]

The phone you use with an SFR box is normally voip (although it still is a normal phone but there is a converter inside the SFR box to convert from analog to digital) and the connection has to be activated by SFR. Hence you message "Phone service not available. My guess is, because you have been using an old AOL modem that you don't have this. To check, what happens if you unplug the phone from your SFR box, unplug the SFR box from the phone socket on the wall and then plug the phone directly in to the phone socket on the wall does it work fine. If on the other hand you get what can be best described as a constant engaged tone then you are right and I am wrong and you probably have a duff SFR box or SFR have not activated the service. Good luck.

[raynipper]

Thanks Quillan.

Yes the existing phones are old AOL voip and Wi-Fi to the old AOL modem and have worked well for many years with the free voip sfr calls service.

When connecting the new modem I tried to connect both the old AOL handsets via Wi-Fi and also plugging into the phone adaptor a trio dect set.

But as I could not get the 'tel' light to come up I guess you are right this may have to be triggered by sfr. Even though I have had the included calls for years.

I am always a little hesitant calling sfr tech help as apart from it being €0.34 a min they do tend to be aggressive and unhelpful with my limited French.

Thanks again Ray.

[Quillan]

Different system then.

You use ordinary phones with the systems in France when you use their routers, the clever bit is inside the box. I don't know about prices of WiFi voip phones (gosh just had a look, they are not cheap) but you can get a trio pack of cordless phones (good quality Siemens ones) for under 100 Euros so it seems you get better choice and cheaper prices for the phone side in France.

You can check to see if the phone is activated by plugging a normal phone in to the phone wall socket. Mine gives a French engaged tone because I have been switched over at the exchange. If you have not been switched over at the exchange then you will get a normal dial tone. I also understand that with some ISP's your phone number and router are 'tied' together which is why when mine went bang they gave me a letter saying the phone would be changed over to the new router within 24 hours to. In actual fact by the time I had got home (about an hour) it had already been done but then that's Orange for you.

[raynipper]

Thanks again for the info.

I guess I must be switched over to a digital or ADSL line with SFR. Plugging in any other phone be it analogue, voip or dect into the SFR line gives no tone at all. Sounds dead.

But immediately I connect via the old AOL modem, voila communications are restored and both voip and the AOL Wi-Fi handsets work fine.

Will be having another play with the new box shortly to see if there is any way to get the 'tel' light up before calling SFR.

Thanks Ray.