JonDuncan

Quillan: Is this Expatshield thing free to use? If it is I wonder how many people use it and is some form of proxy server? If that's what it is and my theory is correct and you having problems tonight between 19:30 and 22:00 CET then its too many people watching Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor and taking the band width. I you had Problems last night around those times it was probably the same shows (performance last night, results tonight). Yes, Expatshield is a free UK proxy, supported by adverts. There is a simple workaround - use it with Firefox, and have AdBlock Plus enabled, and the page pop-ups & ads are gone. There have been some technical problems with it since last week (it's not because of the weekend reality rubbish), but if you look at the Facebook page I referred to in my last post, it seems it is now being checked out. Hopefully it will get fixed up properly because it was working pretty seamlessly until last Wednesday - and it was working well earlier today, but it seems to be going slow at the moment ....

Regarding the slowness problem with ExpatShield... It's a problem at their end, they don't seem to work at the weekend. This is the ExpatShield facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/expatshield?v=wall&filter=1

mogs: "If I have 2 computers and am accessing IPlayer etc through the proxy on one computer at the same time, does the other computer remain connected through my usual ISP? Some sites I use don't allow connection via a proxy/VPN so just wondered." I'm running it one laptop with no problem, and on the second one I've still got my French IP details showing. Just like to add my thanks to chessie for posting about this. Also, as well as ITV and Channel 5, Channel 4's rather good 4OD service works too, with a great archive to wade through. The Iplayer gives best performance for me though, plays very smoothly :)

Sorry to hear you're stuck without it at all over here Hoddy. My Livebox and its assorted paraphernalia are currently en route, so I shall soon know if it has been worth the wait. I do agree though, it's better to know for sure what your status is rather than being continually dangled on a (phone)line like a playful cat with a hapless mouse ...

Well, shockingly, the switch-on date arrived and it really happened this time :=) I am now patiently awaiting the delivery of all the kit and then to be activated! Now, this is the bit I find hard to believe, I am told that instead of my soul-destroying dial-up speed of 28 kbs that I have been enduring for the last seven years, I will get 7 to 8 Mbps. Even if it's half that I'll delighted frankly, but I'm not telling them that. Oh, Chris'nJulie, I'm afraid Wimax was never an option in my neck of the woods :(

Well I'm on a racy 28 kbs here, or a bit less than that right now, hence my eagerness/desperation to get any sort of broadband. I know more about what's going on than my Mairie, but she got satellite broadband a few years ago and anything that does happen re ADSL is in spite rather than because of her efforts. Must admit, I have been tempted to just sod it and go satellite, but I know they're waiting for me to sign the paperwork and tie in to a long deal, and then come along and switch the NRA on the next day. Paranoid, moi? Which is the most reliable source of information about ADSL here in France? I have actually got three different dates from Ariase, DSL Valley and Degrouptest. Somebody say Ariase, they're still giving me the 12th August!

I wonder if I'm on a quest with as much chance of success as searching for the Holy Grail? I'm one of those dinosaurs stuck out just beyond the edge of reason, that's to say I am waiting ADSL to trickle out to my commune. It's been a long time coming, and sometimes it seems tantalisingly close, but disappears in a puff of mocking smoke. In essence, nearly a year ago I was told I'd be getting broadband where I live in November (2009). Then, a couple of weeks before the joyous day, the date was moved back to the beginning of January. To cut an interminable story slightly shorter, the date keeps getting put back, every time it seems to be just about within one's grasp, most recently I have just found that instead of August 12, it now gone back to September 1st. The thing is, the NRA exchange thingy was set up in the local village back in April and even though at that stage the start date was given as the end of May, the Degroup test was showing the NRA as active and it looked like it was ready for take-off. Since then, every month or so, the migration date date has slipped back. I know patience is virtue, but does anyone have any idea how to get a firm answer on this vexing question, I have been banging my head against the wall forever, so it seems ....

AnOther: Jon Duncan, in very broad terms at best a 4km line might give you something around 3mb. Remember though that 4km by road will almost certainly mean more than that by phone line, often by a factor of 2 or 3 or more.* Very interesting, thank you. I do know the phone line does follow the road quite slavishly, so the distance in this case should be okay (goodness knows whether the line itself is good enough though). I shall wait slightly nervously to see what happens on 21 May, though any sort of real speed will seem pretty amazing after 8 years of slow dial-up ... *can't get the quote function to work properly

I'm quite jittery because broadband is finally nearly with me, after the longest wait. Now it's less than one month until it is supposed to get going - I say that with caution because it was originally supposed to get installed last November. I think it really is happening this time. Anyway, I'm 4 km from the exchange in a rural area, I get a heady 28 kbits/s on dial-up .... what can I expect speedwise when the broadband actually gets going (if anyone has any idea)?