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Mazan

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Everything posted by Mazan

  1. Fair enough. I won't trouble you again.
  2. Loiseau, you are confusing identities with accounts. They are not the same thing. You have set up several accounts and OE treats them as you describe. Just select the right account from the drop-down box before replying, as you have been doing.
  3. From IE: tools : internet options : advanced : check the boxes relating to script debugging.
  4. As usual - an opinion by Mazan based on ignorance of a subject he knows very little about. What a shame that you don't elaborate. If you are going to call me ignorant (in what is apparently the first phrase in your first ever post here) you should at least have the courtesy to explain where you think I'm going wrong. As for being ignorant about something one knows very little about, this phrase is just tautology. I will bow to your superior knowledge Hold on. You just said I was ignorant. Which is it? about hunters but there are many others forms of shooting . Indeed there are but none of them were connected with what I had to say about hunting. Do go back and read the thread in full. You've certainly chosen an original way to make your first post here.
  5. without warning, it'd just disapear... very odd... (thats what i meant by connection going) and no error message at all... just back to a blank screen... at that point the little red light came back on and try as i could, haven't been able to get it back to a yellow one since... do you think this means the box has had it? If it was my box I would be making an appointment at the crematorium.
  6. But as far as Leneuf are concerned I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they are still offering this package when we get ADSL later in the year. They seems to be quite generous in their no fee to join, small cancellation, no minimum contract requirements. You won't find it anywhere on the website but Cegetel still do an almost identical offer of 512k for 15€ (when taking preselection) rising to 20€ after the first year with no minimum period and a 40€ (that's 5€ less than LeNeuf) sign-out fee. You can only get this from Cegetel if you ring them and ask. I think that technically Cegetel are marginally better than LeNeuf. Two advantages of Cegetel: their unlimited phone offer for 10€ is for regular phone calls and not VOIP calls (LeNeuf, Tiscali and Wanadoo all offer ADSL + VOIP), and the customer service number is Freephone, unlike all other ISPs that I know of in France. Given how much time you may need to spend on the phone with Cegetel CS this can mean a big saving.
  7. CA's newly introduced system has failed and they expect me to pick up the tab - wrong. I now have to consider my next move. Bad luck indeed. You should visit the Gendarmerie and file a complaint. You should complain to the Banque de France, the local DGCCRF http://www.finances.gouv.fr/DGCCRF/ , and a consumer group of your choosing. "Que Choisir/60 milllions de consommateurs" like having a go at banks. Your next step should be away from the CA. I've said it a hundred times and I don't mind saying it again: all French banks are lousy and the CA are the worst of the lot. For half-way decent and personal service 6 days a week (which offers no possibility of loss such as you have experienced) you can't beat LaPoste. For what it's worth not only would I never put cash into a machine but I never use cash withdrawal machines either. They cannot be trusted. I only withdraw cash in person over the counter in return for my signature on a transaction confirmation that I verify before signing. I would only do the same for paying cash in.
  8. We have used about 1500 ltrs from Oct3 to date. Sunny weather during Oct/Dec kept the boiler from kicking in much during the day but we have had a lot of cold, snowy weather since the end of Jan that has it going nearly all the time. We operate it on 17 deg during the day and 16 deg at night. You're a spartan lot! I have our thermostat on 21° day and night. At 17° I would have to wear my anorak and mittens. I find that it doesn't pay to try and vary the temperature overnight as it takes so long for old buildings to react to changes. We use about a tank full (3000ltr) per year which does all heating (13 radiators) and hot water (for 3 on average) in a large old stone farmhouse that is quite well insulated.
  9. You're quite right. Neuf have obviously started doing IP/ADSL again, and very recently too I think. They scrapped the whole lot early last year. They may have brought it back in due to the recent announcement of wholesale price cuts made by FT that come into effect next month. It just goes to show that you can't stop watching this business for an instant. Hardly a week goes by without the availability, speeds and prices changing. Never a dull moment.
  10. because the ADSL has not arrived yet, it is probably too current. That is certainly true. In fact it can take several days after the ADSL is actually on at the exchange for the FT/Wanadoo database to be updated. Until then other ISPs can't update their databases either. So don't expect the other ISPs databases to give you a "yes" until anything up to 10 days later. However, this website http://www.adsl-facile.com suggests that I can have non degroupe services from N9UF & Tiscali. You will find that the site is wrong.
  11. The card has no bearing on reception. None at all. The card serves only to decode the channels to which you are entitled. In your case it does ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Remove the card and your box will work just as well (or badly). If your card does not have a yellow house on a dark blue background then it is no longer valid anyway and can be thrown away. Your phrase "all was working fine but gradually, programmes would simply close down – happily watching the news (or something) and suddenly, the connection would be lost." is not clear. What "connection" are you talking about? What do you mean by "close down"? You nearly always get some sort of error message on-screen in case of problems: what mesage did you see? You need to be much more precise in your description. Can you get the digibox out of standby by pushing the on-off button on the front panel? If not it is probably time for a new box. But you should test your box on someone else's (Sky) dish before doing so. Try someone else's digibox on your dish also as you could have a cable or LNB fault.
  12. I will continue to recommend external serial modems for simplicity and reliability in cases where an internal modem is broken, missing or doesn't connect reliably (assuming that the line is in good order, of course). Serial modems have the advantage of always working well with no driver problems or installation issues. Obviously anyone who is happy with their internal modem does not need to look for a replacement. Any speed calculations that are based on the theoretical 56k maximum modem speed are doomed to failure. Modems rarely get past 45k in the field and I don't think I've ever seen one get to 50k.
  13. The Degrouptest site is not easy to understand. In areas like yours (non-degrouped and of less than 20,000 lines) you can get the IP/ADSL offer. This currently includes (but is not limited to) Wanadoo, AOL, Club-Internet, Tiscali, Free, Cegetel etc. All areas with any form of ADSL always have at least these providers as the IP/ADSL offer by definition covers all ADSL areas that aren't degrouped. There are no exceptions though for technical reasons Tiscali may not register as being available. Tele2 and Neuf currently have no non-degrouped offer and as such are not available in your area.
  14. The simple answer is no, you cannot use the same card between two different boxes to get any subscription channels. This is incorrect. All the subscription channels will work in any box except for the premium sport and film channels. But this will be of no comfort to the original poster who specifically mentioned the sport channels. He can watch UKGold and Sky One and dozens of other channels but not the ones he wants.
  15. Practically all internal modems are PCI these days, right? Some use proprietary risers. Also do not dismiss external USB modems which do not suffer from the problem. I do dismiss USB modems but for other reasons. They are not very reliable and, as with internal modems, rely heavily on the processing power of the PC. The software drivers are often very odd indeed. And last time I looked your default PC serial port was throttled at 115kbs, even the UART (serial chip) capability to go faster. I'm sorry but I don't understand this sentence. 50-100% faster on web pages. I am quite surprised you can dismiss that so easily. I doubt that the actual speed increase in real life is as high as that. And I still believe that for most users the improvement in general connection stability makes using an external modem worthwhile, if people are having trouble with a built-in one. If they aren't having trouble there is no need to worry, of course.
  16. "If your V.92/V.44 modem connects via a 'real' serial port you're in trouble: ". Your advice for an external serial modem on an average PC may throttle performance by over 50% compared to a cheap internal one. Interesting enough but this refers to some rather special circumstances involving particular modems, particular ISPs and particular compression systems and the crux of it is not with any of the above but with the speed of the port through which they are connected. The assumption being that an internal modem will be on a PCI slot or better and that most serial ports on PCs are throttled at 115kbs. The article is also very geeky. It doesn't affect the reliability/connection issue at all. I find that most users of plain old modems just want a cheap, reliable and fast(ish) connection and the serial device offers this where internal modems often don't. I don't think that the issue of getting slightly better speed on some types of file transfer is of much interest to most people. Anyone who is that concerned about file transfer speed would have got ISDN (if they can't get ADSL) long ago and of course ISDN allows for very robust and more or less instant connections, and up to 128k (uncompressed) in both directions.
  17. Many of these Radio controlled clocks can receive their signals both from Rugby or Frankfurt in Germany. Interesting. I've never seen one that does both though of course as the technology is identical it would make sense for manufacturers to only make one model that can handle both. Sometimes such things use a special sequence of buttons to switch from one mode to another. They don't always print this in the handbook.
  18. What is a wireless video sender, and where might I get one.  What is the French for "I'm looking for a wireless video sender, pal"?  I already have some speakers which run off batteries and pick up a signal from a little box thing that I have plugged into the digibox, but to do this the digibox and TV have to be turned on.  What sort of hi-fi?  Don't give up on me. In French it's a "transmetteur video sans fil". Most large supermarkets and DIY stores have them. They cost from about 30€ though you get what you pay for. You only need a cheap one for audio. Make sure you buy one with "renvoi telecommande". Only the very cheap ones don't have this. You get two boxes. If you only want audio then buy two double RCA to RCA (phono to phono) cables as well. Connect the transmitter unit to the digibox using one pair of RCA leads. Connect the receiver unit to the hifi (or speakers) using the other pair of RCA leads. For use with speakers you may need a dual RCA to mini-jack adaptor. I wouldn't use speakers, especially battery ones. If you want video then follow the instructions. Any small hifi unit will do but it MUST have line in (EXT or AUX) sockets. Not all do. You can easily spot the two red and white RCA sockets on the back of those which do. The Sky box has two identical sockets.
  19. Presumably your clock uses the atomic time signal from Rugby. If so there is nothing you can do to reset it. Why not buy a 5€ travelling battery clock and sit it in front of the other display? As for the Radio 4 issue the TVLink that was suggested will work but I think that a wireless video sender would be more useful as the TVLink won't turn your TV on. Get yourself a mini hifi with line in (may be called EXT or AUX) RCA sockets and you can connect the left and right audio outputs from the video sender directly to these. Powered PC speakers would do fine also. That way you will get radio as God intended it: played through a hifi and not a TV. You will be able to change channels from the bedroom also and even if you don't want the hifi connection you can turn both the TV and the sat receiver on from the bedroom.
  20. I refused the package, saying I just wanted the internet access. He was a bit taken aback but then offered me what I wanted for 1.50 euros per month, I will never understand why French banks always try and charge for these things which in the end will save them much money on providing counter service, answering phones etc. You would think they would be falling over themselves to get you to take them for free, like the UK banks.
  21.  is there any other ISP I could switch to that has the dial up connectivity abroad that AOL has? I'm based in the UK but am often in France and have to use my laptop to keep an eye on the business. If you only need connectivity in the UK and France then all you have to do is open a regular UK dial-up account with whichever ISP you like and open another one with whichever French ISP you like. You will only pay the cost of the local calls (no monthly fee) and you can send and receive email using OE on either dial-up service. http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-techcorner/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=435 If you want access in other countries as well, especially if you just tend to go to odd places on a one-off basis, then you should stick with AOL as the only other options are expensive.
  22. You're right I did not include the TVA -  Phew! I was worried for a while.  However, its still not bad news as the price on our latest delivery was .472euros per litre including the TVA so I think it looks like we did get a good deal from our local man. I seem to remember that our local Auchan had a similar price marked up when I looked in there last week. For those who don't know: most hyper/super market chains in France do fuel oil delivery. The prices are usually very competitive and they offer delivery within a couple of days. They also tend to offer extra low season discounts on top of the regular one for quantity. I also like the way that Auchan, at least, put all the prices up on a board inside the shop for all to see. The local man here has his down on a sheet of card hidden under the desk and on occasions the price on delivery hasn't quite matched the price quoted. It also makes me wonder whether he quotes the same price to all on the same day. Auchan state the price when you order and they stick to it. They are also very punctual, at least round here.
  23. I am about to import a DVD burner for my PC (and yes, I can get stonking prices in the UK so there is no need to buy in France). I am going to spend a few more pennies and get a black fronted player I doubt that you will save anything buying from the UK, unless you don't pay postage. http://www.rueducommerce.fr/info/showdetl.cfm?product_id=363543 I am in two minds regarding the software to go with it. Can someone give me some comments on Nero. I had it once before and was not very impressed (it caused no end of problems) but it might have improved over the years. Also any other recommendations for DVD burning software. I do not like Nero though I have it installed for odd occasions when I need to burn their proprietary images. Otherwise I invariably use Prassi with 100% success but it isn't commercialised any more. I also have Alcohol 120% which is reliable though it lacks a couple of useful features. I suppose that if I was buying new software I would probably go for Nero. You can download a free trial version.
  24. We just filled our oil tank yesterday and the price was .395euros per litre, we are in the commune of Cherves (dept 86). This seems most unreasonably cheap. Are you sure that you aren't leaving out the TVA or something? The margin on fuel oil is quite tight, as with most bulk fuels. As far as I know no one around here sells oil for much less than about 50cts and it costs more for small quantities. My tank can take 3000 litres (one year's worth) so the saving on a tank-full for me alone would be 300€: nearly worth getting it delivered by your man! One of France's biggest oil refinery areas (Fos) is under an hour's drive away from here, so delivery distance presumably isn't a reason for our prices to be so much higher than yours.
  25. I think that this story is rather silly. The dye in question is, as I understand it, part of the chilli content. It makes the chilli powder red. Just how much chilli powder can there be in one bottle of Worcester sauce? Not a lot. And how much sauce goes into one meal? Just a few drops. I am far more worried about the huge quantities of noxious chemicals used directly on fresh food, many of which are also known to be cancer causing but are "tolerated" because there is no alternative apart from organic farming. The amounts of these that are ingested daily must be thousands of times greater than the amount of dye in a drop of hot sauce.
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