telephones compatable with freebox

[DJ]

We have recently had a freebox installed and although  our old France Telecom  Amarys handset works we want to change it for a cordless duo or trio. Neither of the phones we have bought so far will work both of them were marked as ADSL Box compatible - instead of a dial tone we just get a clicking noise. None of the phones on the list supplied by Free seem to be available anymore - although the Free Assistance helpline assures us that this list is up to date. Anybody got any idea what the problem is or a new phone that definitely works with the box?

[ChezShells]

Hi

Have you activated the phone via your online account?

I have never had a problem with phones on the freebox.

[DJ]

Hi

Thanks for your response but we did activate the line through the Free website. We've now bought a Siemens Gigaset AS180 Duo which works fine for outgoing calls but incoming calls go straight to answerphone after one ring. This apparently is quite a common problem. We have followed the advice given on a thread on this French forum http://www.brakstar.com/forum/braktopic_2014.html  which works for some but unfortunately not for us. The operators on the Free assistance line are at best unhelpful and incompetent and at worst downright rude. Any suggestions please as we seem to have run out of options.

DJ

[Chancer]

Have you checked your Freebox settings via the website? I have often found that ading or modifying the parameters by the phone doesnt always work and sometimes things get added or removed arbitrarily like my refusing calls from with-held numbers so I would first check it out.

Someone suggested it in the link that you showed so I have copied it for ease:

Bonjour,

Entrez dans l'interface de gestion freebox puis cliquez dans TELEPHONE.

Dans la liste qui s'affiche cliquez dans "Gestion de mes services" .
Dans le tableau "Gerer mes services associés" positionnez vous sur la rubrique "Renvoi vers messagerie".Parmi les choix proposés dans la liste déroulante sélectionnez par exemple "Renvoi sur occupatoion ou non réponse".
Entrez un nombre de secondes dans l'encart "Délai avant renvoi".

Puis validez en cliquant dans "Enregistrez" en bas du tableau.

Un message sur la prise en compte des modifications effectuées est édité.
Déconnectez vous de free avant de faire un essai.

The other thing to do is reboot your Freebox ADSL and the Freebox HD for good measure at the same time, the HD shouldnt affect the telephone but there may well be updated software waiting.

Let me know if you cannot follow the French text or if you want any other info as there are not many Free users on the forum other than NormanH that I know of.

Editted. Make sure that you are plugging your new phone into the socket on the Freebox and that any wiring for extension sockets is removed from the master socket which now has your Freebox adaptor plugged into it and are connected to the Freebox output (you will need a junction box to do this, and do not plug your phone into the socket marked phone on the Freebox adaptor, in either of these cases you are connecting your telephone directly to the ADSL line and it will not work.

From what you have said I think that thhe above is your problem, to me one of the failings of the Freebox is that you only have one phone output despite a Consuel wired house having many phone extensions these are rendered unuseable when the freebox is connected, perhaps they think that people will just use one cordless base station with multiple handsets, there is no easy way of connecting extension phones without cutting into the cord and knowing which cores to connect to your extension phones as I have done.

[NormanH]

Just a thought (which may be out-dated).

Have you got other telephone points in the house, and have they all got ADSL filtres in them.

This used to be essential, but I am not sure that it still is.

[DJ]

Hi Chancer and NormanH

Thanks for your suggestions.

The old France Telecom Amarys handset, which we've had for at least fifteen years, works with the Freebox as it should, it rings about 6 times (20 seconds) then goes to Voicemail.

The two first Doro Matra cordless phones we bought did not work with the freebox at all. We bought the Siemens on recomendation from friends who have a similar one which works with their Freebox.

I have changed the options in the Gestion des Services page of the Free website as recomended by the French guy on the brakstar forum. I have done it several times and rebooted or hard rebooted the freebox each time and it makes no difference. In fact it seems to make no difference whatever options I select on this page - I have tried the option to disable the Voicemail altogether but with no effect.

The Freebox we have is a V4 we only have the one box so I  assume the HD you mention is a separate hard drive which we don't have. The phone is connected to a filter which is connected to the wall socket at one end and the Freebox at the other as per Free's installation instructions. There are three other extension sockets in the house which are individually connected to a junction box situated where the line comes into the house. The was no mention in Free's instructions as to disconnecting any extensions or fitting filters and as the old phone works perfectly well it does not seem logical that these would have any effect just because we've changed the phone. However logic does not seem to apply to some aspects of French technology.

Blood pressure is mounting as frustration increases.

DJ

 

[suein56]

[quote user="DJ"]

Blood pressure is mounting as frustration increases.

 [/quote]

You haven't said whether you live in an old house or not but if you do you might have one of these in your main telephone point as here.

If you have then there are detailed instructions for the removal of it as it is now superfluous.

[Quillan]

Good point Sue but I think thats only fitted to what we call in the UK the 'master' socket i.e. the first box in the house which is ideally where the filter should be plugged in to, what this 'bit' normally does is separate out the ring circuit. On thing that could be tried, if not already done, is to unplug everything from all the sockets in the house, connect the router with the filter as described and give it a try.

We have Gigaset handsets (via the base station) and a fax plugged in to the phone socket on our Orange box and it works without problem. Interestingly there are other benefits with these phones like it has a 'mail' button and flash's the display if there is an answer phone message.

[Chancer]

Having read not your original post carefully (a common failing of mine) and after reading your subsequent one can you clarify the following.

Are you in a zone degroupée?

Have you done way with your France Telecom abonnement and just got the Free line?

Do you have the television service? (that is what my Freebox HD is)

Armed with the answers I think that I can assist.

[NormanH]

I believe The OP has the old single V4 box , not the two boxes V5 like us (one for Internet/Phone, the other for TV)

Even with the newer freebox I found

"Eviter au maximum les rallonges entre la Freebox et la prise

téléphonique. N’oubliez pas le Filtre ADSL sur toutes les prises de

votre maison/appartement/chambre d’étudiant."

http://cld-informatique.idfabrik.com/index.php?page=47

but it is true that this no longer appears on the Free site

For information my telephone is a Siemens Gigaset 165

[DJ]

Hi Everyone

We do not have a capacitor in the main socket'.

As far as I remember we are in a zone degroupee - nothing in any information received from Free tells us what zone we are in but as we live in a very rural area of the Dordogne

I assume we are degroupéed.

We have done away with France Telecom - a mistake as they cut the line off within an hour of us phoning to sign up with Free. Now we have no phone  during power cuts..

We are not interested in the television service and so have nothing connected although there is a scart socket on the back of the Freebox which I presume is for the tele service.

I have just plugged back in our old telephone and been back to the Gestion des Service page and disabled the voicemail. It worked - ie the old phone rang indefinitly and did not go to voicemail at all. So at least we can now recieve incoming calls on that phone. However when we plug in the cordless phone it takes no notice of the instruction given to it on the website and does the same - rings once and goes to voicemail.

It seems that the Freebox is just not compatable with the Siemens phone.

This might seem to be a trivial thing to worry about but this is a very large rambling house with 5 acres of grounds so a cordless phone really is a must.

Thank you all very much for your efforts.

DJ

[Chancer]

I am assuming that you are plugging them both into the same socket outlet of the Freebox, neither one would work on your existing hard wired extension sockets now that you are on an ADSL line.

I have a cordless phone bought from Aldi that works fine on the Freebox however another BT/Siemens outfit brought from the UK refused to work even on my original FT line, I bought a new connection lead and even tried hardwiring a French plug to no avail, same problem no ring tone, on the UK system it would have been caused by the bell surpression circuit (terminal 3) not being connected but I didnt know enough about the French system. Perhaps it would now work on the Freebox.

I cant however recommend my phone, (it is labelled Cocoon and they have them on promo once or twice a year) as it has developed a faul and defaults to tone dialling, I now have to force it to MF by tapping hache before dialling.

[NormanH]

To see if you are dégroupée look at this map: there is a zoom.

http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/accueil/carte-de-degroupage.html

Most cities in France are dégroupée including Paris, Lyon, and Marseille, to just name a few. Whereas the countryside except for areas around cities is not dégroupée, it unclear if many rural locations will ever become dégroupée

[DJ]

It appears that we are degroupage non prévu whatever that means.

DJ

[NormanH]

It isn't planned that you will be 'dégroupée'

A further shot in the dark.

Is the number of times it rings before going to answer-phone changeable on the phone itself?

[DJ]

I realise that but what difference does it make whether one is degroupage or not?

There is no option on the phone to change the number of rings as far as I can see.

DJ

[Chancer]

I am going beyond my knowledge here so can others correct the following if it is wrong.

I am degroupée and hence can get ADSL and television and VOIP telephone without a FT line.

I thought that non degroupée meant that you still had to pay for a functioning land line (perhaps through Free?) to receive the internet and VOIP services and couldnt get the television service, I should have asked how much do you pay? is it €29.99 per month.

I thought that with non degroupée you could continue to use a standard telephone on the incoming line or any extensions and hence would not be troubled by power cuts other than not benefitting from cheaper calls.

Can you confirm what service you have (you say that you have ditched FT) and where exactly you are plugging in the working and non working phones, also what sockets will your working phone work in?

I am convinced there is a simple solution we just need to know all the basics.

Editted, one more question.

When you say that it rings once and goes to voicemail do you mean the Free voicemail that you retrieve by dialling **1 or a built in answerphone on the cordless phone?

[NormanH]

As I said I have a Siemens phone which works with the Freebox, but I have set the time for 'renvoi sur messengarie' to 30 seconds.

This gives me 2 complete rings, not really 30 seconds worth..

[ChezShells]

Looks like this is gonna take some time

try the freebox forum (in english if you prefer) a couple of helpful posters on there

I only ever used the freebox no. for outgoing calls, kept our FT line for incoming

[Chancer]

[quote user="ChezShells"]Looks like this is gonna take some time
try the freebox forum (in english if you prefer) a couple of helpful posters on there

I only ever used the freebox no. for outgoing calls, kept our FT line for incoming

[/quote]

Mine is set to the max of 45 seconds but it is less time than that, if I am working on the top floor and hear the telephone, usually by the 2nd ring to confirm my ears, and I then run down 3 flight of stairs the phone will always stop ringing just as I get to it.

Perhaps the OP might try setting the rig time to maximum, perhaps the REN value of the phone may reduce the ring time.

[DJ]

We were ditched by France Telecom which was not our

intention but the sales pitch given to us by Free was ambiguous in the extreme

and FT cut us off before we could draw breath.

 

We pay Free 29.99€ a month for cheap calls and broadband

internet.

There are 4 phone sockets in the house none of these work

unless plugged into the freebox so we can only use one extension at a time

hence the need for a cordless.

 

There is no answerphone built into the Siemens however there

is a function called voicemail which supposedly tells you how many messages you

have on your servers voicemail (which I’m beginning to think maybe the root of

the problem) and enables you to call  **1 by pressing and holding down key 1.

 However if you  don’t enable

this function it makes no difference.

The old  FT (not

cordless) handset works fine through the Freebox and responds to any

instructions given to it through the Free website.

 

I’m beginning to think that the only solution other than

trying every cordless phone until we find one that works is to re-activate the

FT line and take incoming calls on that. However FT will probably charge an and

arm and a leg to reconnect and won’t scramble to get it done quickly either.

[NormanH]

"The old  FT (not

cordless) handset works fine through the Freebox and responds to any

instructions given to it through the Free website."

I agree that it looks as if your set up works fine except with the cordless phone, so that some of the well-intentioned suggestions we have made may have been red herrings.

What I am not certain is if you have tried the suggestion of substantially increasing the ring time on the Free website to 30-45 seconds.

Both Chancer and I find that the actual ring time is far shorter than the figure stated.

[DJ]

The set works fine in all respects with the corded phone, you can disable voicemail, increase or decrease the ring time as you please although, as you say, the ringtime is shorter than stated.

I'm afraid for some reason it's taken against me getting a cordless and nothing will change it's mind..

[Chancer]

I did some reading on the freebox forum http://www.freebox-forum.net/forum/ and found that lots of people had similar problems with phones that worked well for others and worked when tried on other peoples freebox.

In most cases, particularly with the Freebox V4 it was caused by the output a.c. ring tone voltage from the Freebox being insufficient at 38 volts or less as opposed to 50./60 vac on a Ft line or a good Freebox, in most cases this was due to a failing or insufficient Freebox power supply adaptor.

Many people took the cheap route of using another 12vdc power supply to aliment their Freebox and the problem was resolved.

Have a look on the forum, you are not alone.

[NormanH]

I think you may be on to something there.

The problem of an under-performing power pack on the Freebox V4 was one I had myself, though it didn't just affect my phone.

In fact it was the only problem I have had and was immediately spotted by the guy on the Free helpline