sujet Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying? dans WiFi / connexion filaire et débit

Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 13:46:57 GMT

I decided to get internet service from SFR after I was advised at this site https://en.selectra.info/broadband-phone-france/guides/internet, that SFR is reliable and can provide support also in English. But I don't see this is the case!

The matter is, I'm subscribed to an option, which promises internet speed of 200Mbs, but the connection never ever reaches even 20Mbs, in average my connection speed is only 5-8Mbs!

To report about the problem, I've tried to connect to SFR live support, but that stopped working after I subscribed to SFR! Neither I was not able to find an option to write an email. Only at the SFR sale point I was given four digit french number to get the help. But this number is completely useless, if you don't speak French!

So, how SFR provides support to clients, who don't speak French? Or, this is not relevant anymore after are subscribed to SFR and SFR starts receiving money?

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 22:05:24 GMT

Hello,

I don't even know if SFR can provide support in English... But we can try to help you here, where we are all SFR customers like you.

> I'm subscribed to an option, which promises internet speed of 200Mbs

You to avoid any confusion (fiber "FttH", of fiber with coaxial termination "FttB") can you tell us exactly what is your box supplied by SFR (see images and official names in the following page HERE)

> but the connection never ever reaches even 20Mbs, in average my connection speed is only 5-8Mbs!

Are you giving us the results measured with wifi (not reliable to avoid auxialiary problems) ? Or did you perform these measures with the supplied Etehrnet cable (RJ45)?
What tool or site web did you use for the measure? (http://speedtest.net and manually select the server in Massy is recommended).

Regards.

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 07:36:30 GMT

Hello,

To answer your questions:

The box provided by SFR is this one: https://assistance.sfr.fr/internet-et-box/modem-thd-wifi-ac/accueil.html?par=2

1. The speed was measured surely using wifi connection to the box (as at home I use wifi). But I really don't think this is a problem related to wifi. If this is wifi, how bad quality it must be to have so really bad connection?!

2. To be objective, I had measured the speed using various sites (at least 4 each time) and during many different days. For your request I have just tried also with http://www.speedtest.net/ and I should tell you, that today I have exceptionally, catastrophically BAD speed: 0.50Mbs download and 0.00 upload!

Describing the speed quality in other words (at best times) it is so: loading the internet pages is very slow; remote connection (through PuTTY) to other computers (even at CERN) breaks within less a minute time!; even speaking by skype is not possible, not mentioning of video chat, which is practically impossible!

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 12:21:25 GMT

Hello,

So your box is "MODEM THD wifi AC".

A box on the FttB network (i.e. fiber terminated by coaxial cable).

Then can you give use a copy/paste of the infos of "ficheir de configuration" and "fréquences" (visible on http://192.168.0.1 then tab RÉSEAU > Paramètres avancés > Fréquences câble)

> The speed was measured surely using wifi connection to the box (as at home I use wifi). But I really don't think this is a problem related to wifi.

You can't know.

And the point was to ensure that your connection is OK or not. By adding the incertainty of wifi (its performance depends on your home situation) your just add more problem making impossible to know where the problem is.

> If this is wifi, how bad quality it must be to have so really bad connection?!

There is p^lenty of reasons. We'll discus of that only if it is the case. The priority is to ensure if your internet connection (is good or not, considering the frequencies above, and the sppedtest performaned WITOUT wifi.

regads.

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 20:05:21 GMT

Hello,

Sorry, I've just to my computer at home.

Francly speaking it's not clear to me where to find the parameters you have requested.

At http://192.168.0.1 I see one page, where there the following items can be found:

Mode,
DHCP,
Your IP address,
Your subnet mask,
Your default gateway,
Your DNS,
Network Status,
Maximum downstream datarate,
Maximum upstream datarate,
WiFi Status 2.4 GHz,
WiFi Status 5 GHz,
Guest WiFi Status 2.4 GHz,
VoIP Status,
Line 1 Status,
Line 2 Status,
Standard Specification Compliant,
Hardware version,
Software version,
Cable MAC address,
Device MAC address,
CM Certificate,
System Up Time,
Current Time;

Is among them any item you need?

And I don't know to which "RÉSEAU"(="NETWORK"?) tab to go in order to find "Fréquences câble"

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 20:20:00 GMT

Hello,

> Francly speaking it's not clear to me where to find the parameters you have requested.

> And I don't know to which "RÉSEAU"(="NETWORK"?) tab to go in order to find "Fréquences câble"

I gave you the full path to this tab (yes, spelled RESEAU in French, which is NETWORK if you switch your interface to English)

http://192.168.0.1 then tab RÉSEAU > Paramètres avancés > Fréquences câble

which mean (using words from English version of the interface)

Go to to http://192.168.0.1
Log in (Button "Set you Gateway", Username is admin, Password is the one written on the sticker under your device)
Click on tab NETWORK (at the top)
Click on "Advanced Settings" (at left)
Click on "Frequencies" (at left)
Then you see the requested page (like the 3rd image in this message HERE from a device not very different from yours) and make a copy/paste to the forum.

à+

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 20:43:37 GMT

This is a trail to see, if just copy/paste works. If not, I'll send you also a picture of the page.

NETWORK / ADVANCED SETTINGS / FREQUENCIES

Startup procedure
Procedure	Status	Comment
Downstream acquisition :	194000000 Hz	Locked
Connection Status :	OK	Operational
Registering Status :	OK	Operational
Configuration File :	OK	sfr_fast3686v1b_200m_20m_sip.cm
Security :	Enabled	BPI+

Downstream Bonded Channels
Lock Status	Modulation	Channel ID	Symbol Rate	Frequency	Power	SNR
Locked	QAM256	25	6952 Ksym/sec	194000000 Hz	15.3 dBmV	39.9 dB
Locked	QAM256	26	6952 Ksym/sec	202000000 Hz	15.3 dBmV	40.0 dB
Locked	QAM256	27	6952 Ksym/sec	210000000 Hz	15.2 dBmV	40.1 dB
Locked	QAM256	28	6952 Ksym/sec	218000000 Hz	15.1 dBmV	40.0 dB
Locked	QAM256	29	6952 Ksym/sec	226000000 Hz	15.2 dBmV	40.3 dB
Locked	QAM256	30	6952 Ksym/sec	234000000 Hz	15.2 dBmV	40.3 dB
Locked	QAM256	31	6952 Ksym/sec	242000000 Hz	15.2 dBmV	40.2 dB
Locked	QAM256	32	6952 Ksym/sec	250000000 Hz	15.2 dBmV	40.2 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV	0.0 dB

Upstream Bonded Channels
Lock Status	Modulation	Channel ID	Symbol Rate	Frequency	Power
Locked	ATDMA	1	5120 Ksym/sec	60400000 Hz	33.3 dBmV
Locked	ATDMA	2	5120 Ksym/sec	54000000 Hz	31.8 dBmV
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV
Not Locked	Unknown	0	0 Ksym/sec	0 Hz	0.0 dBmV

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 22:09:14 GMT

Hello,

So, according to the page you copied:

you have a connection config for 200 Mbit/s (download) / 20 Mbit/s (upload)
your frequencies are rather good
download : more than 15 dBmV is rather a maximum I've ever seen (usually around 12, 15 is a maximum for the norm), but SNR is good (usually around 42)
upload : usually 42 dBmV, your value of 31 and 33 are a bit at the minimum for the norm

So your values are quite good, but just at the limits.

I ensure you that you should perform a test with cable RJ45 (without wifi). I really suppose that a large part of your problems come from wifi.

What are your results obtained with RJ45 Ethernet cable on http://speedtest.net and manually selecting the server of Massy (the most reliable one).

Regards.

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:29:34 GMT

Hello,

You are right! With the cable the speed is a lot much higher, download ~120Mbs, upload ~20Mbs.
I am very surprised with so low quality of the wifi.

1. Is the low wifi speed related to the bad quality of the wifi-device as of general (i.e. the device being of poor quality class)?
Or, is this just a matter of accidental failure of the device (which can happen) or maybe some connections are not so well connected (can also happen)?

2. What kind of solutions do exist in this case?
Does SFR repair or replace the device, if the problem is with the device?

Thank you!

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:58:09 GMT

Hell,

> download ~120Mbs, upload ~20Mbs.

OK, That's more usual.

Nevertheless I'm a bit surprised of "only" 120 Mbs of 200 at max

Did you use http://speedtest.net with manual selection of the server in Massy as I suggested?
Are these results the same at any hour (in the afternoon... or in the evening as rush hour ?)

> I am very surprised with so low quality of the wifi. [...] What kind of solutions do exist

In fact there plenty of reasons, as you said:

the device is not functioning correctly
you are too far from the box when using the wifi
your wifi neighbourhood is very surrounded by many other wifi networks
your wifi channel is not the most appropriated
etc.

A first set of observations could be made to help understanding your particular situation:

Where are you usually using your wifi with so poor performances (far from the box?, with several walls in between?)
Is the wifi performance better and correct when you are close to the box? (just in front of it)
Have you the same poor results with different devices (laptop, smartphone, tablets...)?
Which wifi frequency are you using from your devices: 2,4 GHz or 5 GHz (wifi-ac 5 GHz is more recent, has doubled speed, and more available channels likely to avoid interferences from the neighboring wifis. If you don't know which wifi is used by your device connected to the box, you can set different names to the 2 wifi hotspots of your box by entering the setup interface on http://192.168.0.1
BTW, have you many neighbouring wifis detected with the "radar" in this interface: tab WIFI > Wifi radar?

Regards.

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 21:29:55 GMT

Hi,

I've checked the speed again and it is exactly the same as before. I brought cable only today evening, so thus was not able to perform test at other times. In principle, if I get the wifi connection with that speed, I would be fully satisfied.

As of your question "Did you use http://speedtest.net with manual selection of the server in Massy as I suggested?", honestly I don't understand where to find settings to set Massy server on that web to perform that test. Neither quick internet search helped me. Is this very important?

As of the rest of your questions:

1-2. I am sitting in just 4-5 meters distance from the box, with no obstacle in-between. Even coming and sitting on top of the box brings almost nothing, the speed increases only to ~14Mbs (with the upload becoming ~16Mbs).

3. At home I have 3 rather different laptops, and the speed is the same (very low) for all of them. At my work with my laptop I have incomparably better wifi connection.
So neither distance to the box, interference of other nets, as well as the computer itself, I think, has anything to do with the speed.

4. In my laptop currently the 802.11n is enabled (from "netsh wlan show interfaces" command), so thus both, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz can be used. In fact the http://192.168.0.1 page also shows that both are enabled, but I don't know which one is in use.

5. At the moment I see 14 hotspots. Do you need any further information on them?

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 23:07:18 GMT

Hello,

> As of your question "Did you use http://speedtest.net with manual selection of the server in Massy as I suggested?", honestly I don't understand where to find settings to set Massy server on that web to perform that test. Neither quick internet search helped me. Is this very important?

It's not VERY important, but as I told you, the Massy server is the one said to be reliable, even for high speed.

On the other hand, in automatic mode, speedtest.net select a server that is near from you... but that server could be a bit slown and give false measures... That's all.

So when you want to share speedtest results, apart from "Masser server", people will say you it's not completely reliable and furthermore not very comparable.

To change server on http://speedtest.net (for instance after the result are displayed in automatic mode), it's very easy: you should have seen it => there is a link "Change Server just under the upload speed result

> So neither distance to the box, interference of other nets, as well as the computer itself, I think, has anything to do with the speed.

You also thought the low internet speed had nothing to do with wifi when I suggested you to first test without wifi...

Once again, I tell you: you can't know... before testing and verifying it! You're playing poker with such suppositions.

> In my laptop currently the 802.11n is enabled

So this is a rather "slow" wifi... Half as low as wifi-ac (only available on 5 GHz)

And therefore (since it's a quite old wifi, I guess this computer is not a very recent and performant wifi device).

> so thus both, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz can be use

Yes wifi-n does old 2.4 GHz and also newer 5 GHz, which makes it avoid more interference than in 2.4 GHz (because there is less available channels in 2.4 GHz)

But wifi-ac in 5 GHz is much faster than wifi-n in 2.4 and 5 GHz.

> In fact the http://192.168.0.1 page also shows that both are enabled, but I don't know which one is in use.

I know they are both in use. As I told you before, they are both enabled with the same name by default (this is rather practical).

But it prevents you from testing if one is slow and the second is faster.

So I explained you above that you had to give them two DIFFERENT names to be able to select manually on your device to one you want to use for your test.

If you don't do that, you won't know if one is slower than the other, and you won't know if (by chance) your device could be much faster by using the other hotspot frequency.

From my point of view you would get the best wifi speed

by ensuring connection to the 5 GHz hotpoint of your box
and by using wifi-ac compatible devices

Regards.

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 06:49:07 GMT

Hi again,

As of the server to test the speed, today morning it's 170Mbs irrespective the server, Massy or other.

As of the available wifi connections, these are the ones I have: 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n and I don't have wifi-ac. What I tried is, I set the "Preferred wifi" to 5.2GHz but this changes nothing in terms of speed. Is this equivalent to what you were suggesting (giving different names)? If not, then I will try to do exactly what you were suggesting.

Thank you

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 10:48:44 GMT

Hello,

> today morning it's 170Mbs irrespective the server, Massy or other.

(I guess this is with Ethernet cable)

So OK, this result is much more acceptable (for a subscription to 200 Mbit/s) than your previous result of 120 Mbit/s a bit far for the limit.

> As of the available wifi connections, these are the ones I have: 802.11a 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n and I don't have wifi-ac.

None of your computers and devices have wifi-ac?

That's surprising: this better wii-chip is built-in in devices for a couple of years now... Are they wuite old?

This is very disappointing that, with only wifi-n, you are dividing by 2 the wifi speed that you can reach.

> What I tried is, I set the "Preferred wifi" to 5.2GHz but this changes nothing in terms of speed. Is this equivalent to what you were suggesting (giving different names)? If not, then I will try to do exactly what you were suggesting.

No, that's not necessary the same: "prefered wifi" does not "forces" the selection, and then we are not sure.

To be really sure (at least for your tests, you can restore the config after) I suggested you to

set different a name for wifi 2,4 GHz and a second name for wifi 5 GHz (BTW wifi 5,2 GHz does not exist)

compare the two results for wifi speed.

As a last possibility of improving things, I would suggest

to stay with 5 GHz wifi
and have a look if your channel is used by many other neighbors.

If all this is OK, and the wifi speed remains at 5-8 Mbit/s as announced in your first message:

=> maybe your box has a problem, and should be replaced by SFR.

regards.

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 23:41:35 GMT

Hi,

I just moved to France and I too am having the same problem- NO ASSISTANCE IF YOU DO NOT SPEAK FRENCH and very little means of getting through to someone to provide assistance- everything is automated and link and correlated, keeps taking you to another page and to FAQs no real help.

I bout a BOX but didn't know that I needed access to a telephone line to be able to use the box. The telephone line in my apartment is not working so now I have a box that doesn't work and no help from SFR thus far. I am hoping someone here can tell me how to get a BOX Plus SFR to work with or without the cable- how to set up my phone cable or how to get it to work without it.

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

utilisateur_supprimé — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 09:12:05 GMT

Hello,

If you are still within the first 2 test-weeks, my advice - cancel the contract with SFR without hesitation!

I wasn't able to get ANY help from SFR within a year after even asking my french-speacking friend to call and speak with them, so now I'm moving to another provider.

From my point of view and experience, there is no point of staying with SFR.

Good luck!

Re: Does SFR provide support after you are subscribed to a service and start paying?

Ryry — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 09:29:07 GMT

Hello,

Yes, the SFR customer service (now external, and overseas to cut the prices) is quite awful. That's a real pity.

Moreover, apart from that poor general quality, I'm not sure indeed that they support also in English (that could be possible, maybe...)

> If you are still within the first 2 test-weeks, my advice - cancel the contract with SFR without hesitation!

Be aware of one important point about that advice:

in France, this is NOT a 2-week test, but this is a legal protection for remote purchase (where, by definition, you cannot directly observe what you're buying) that lets you change your mind during that 2-wek delay (even if the service has never been activated nor tested).

=> so this cancelation without any fee is possible ONLY for a subscription made by internet or by phone, not if you subscribed in a SFR shop.

=> if you subscribed in a shop (SFR or another), then a cancelation will legally charge you all the remaining months of your 12-month engaging contract

Be careful of that point.

bye