Steve Last

Having just switched to free.fr for phone as well as internet, I find that Free's automatic voicemail settings have overridden the availability of our old answering machine. I cannot find any way to either disable the automatic messagerie or change the default (French) outgoing message which is very confusing for most of our callers from the UK. Their help pages tell you all about getting messages by email etc but not the most basic question. Anybody solved this? Steve

Then I'm pretty sure you need a CMS rather than any of the systems that come as "instant websites" with some of the hosting companies, WordPress will probably do it for you. A year ago it was definitely more suitable for individual bloggers but I believe it has been expanded. Drupal 6 had a dreadful image as being unfriendly to beginners but is very powerful and Drupal 7 is far more accessible which is why I went for that. Good luck!

It's a FAT32 8GB usb stick with a few JPG images to try. The Humax recognises it and I can show the images on the TV though they are shown as being in a folder that is not actually on the drive. Video recordings listed on the hard drive however shown with all the edit possibilities except "copy" which is greyed out.

Thank you, I see that will play the video files, my question is actually more of a newbie one, when I view the file manager on the Humax box it doesn't allow me to copy video files so the issue is how do I get the recording off the Humax hard disk onto the USB stick? I looked at the answer on the link you gave but couldn't really follow what it was telling me at this stage.

I would put money that the answer is "No" but has anyone found a way to transfer TV video recordings onto a USB so they can be viewed elsewhere e.g. on laptop or tablet computer? Steve

If the situation is that you want to set up the site such that OTHER PEOPLE with no technical skills can add material (articles, pictures etc) to it without you having to be involved or intervene, but where they can't screw up the basic system, then you probably want a "content management system" (CMS). Both Joomla and WordPress do that. Also you will want to have a system where when people forget their passwords they can get them reset automatically otherwise you are going to be forever messing around with admin tasks long after you have better things to do with your time. After spending a fair amount of time wrestling with this myself and testing various open source (i.e. free) CMS I went with Drupal 7 which meets that requirement (e.g. the password reset is built in to your basic site). It can look a bit daunting but is actually very easy to get a basic site running, it comes instantly installed with many low cost hosting services (as do Joomla, Wordpress etc) . The trick is going to be to not saddle yourself with being the only person who can do anything at all on the public site. That gets to be a real pain if the site is successful, as then you can't get out without making big changes to the underlying system. That is a problem with many "conventional" website programmes which seem really to need a single "master administrator" - I know, I've been caught out like that myself. Steve.

don't know, we are back in the UK at the moment and will try twisting the head of the antenna next time we're down at the end of this month.

Don't think there's a bird nesting on it! The signal is showing as strength 90% and quality 70% on both tuners at the moment (midday). I'll have another look at it this evening.

We are currently finding that we get a perfectly good freesat reception on all channels by day, as always in the past, but currently poor or no signal on some channels at night. E.g. losing BBC 1 and 2 but still have good BBC HD. Before I go up aloft and start moving dish parts around, is there a weather or day/night -related issue with satellite signals with the current high pressure /dry air weather around, as is sometimes the case with terrestrial TV? We don't have a sat receiver in the UK so I am not very up to speed on sat tech issues.

Clair, thank you VERY much for that. It was the definition of a stere for this purpose as being a cubic metre OF 1 METRE LONG LOGS that I was missing. I can see now it's actually a version of the cornflakes packet issue - "contents may settle after packing" - smaller objects fit together more easily so take up less space when organised. (Also I guess it's a form of fractal maths for those who understand that stuff, just like the distance round an irregular object increases if you use smaller units of measurement!) Anyway since my 3 steres is made up of 50cm logs and comes out at 2.4 cu. m. just as predicted I don't think I'm being ripped off after all. Incidentally price here (supplier in our village in the N Vaucluse) is currently €64/stere delivered but not stacked. Thanks to everyone for the comments Steve

If a stere is a cubic metre, how much wood do you get in a stere of logs? in the past 7 or so years I have used a number of suppliers, and when the wood is stacked it seems pretty consistently to be about 20% short by volume, e.g. today 3 steres fits into a space of 2.4 cu m. Am I being ripped off or is there something I'm missing here?? Like wood suppliers have special "metres" that are only 80 cm??

Thank you for that. Our house is 3 phase and when we took it over were recommended to have the 30kwh tariff. I'd never really thought about how much was actually needed but costs are now very high. If 18kwh is adequate for most domestic installations I'll reduce it. We are normally just 2 adults here and have some electric heat in winter plus the usual appliances.

I am just reviewing our electrical account and finding some anomalies as well as huge costs, but this is just a question about the flat rate abonnement: there is a huge increase between 18 kVA and 24 kva (251 > 524 € per year).The 18 KVA shows a trip Amperage of 90 but the 24 kVA shows it at 40A. http://bleuciel.edf.com/abonnement-et-contrat/les-prix/les-prix-de-l-electricite/tarif-bleu-47798.html#acc52401 I calculate 18kva = 72 amps at 250 volts and 24 kva = 96 amps. So it appears that I would overload a 24 kva circuit before an 18 kVA one - can someone explain to me how this system works?

That was my reaction too! Haven't had to buy tyres for this car before and was a bit shocked - thought the number was for 4 not 2! Will shop around in the UK. Steve

Thanks to all for the most useful comments! After looking at local offers and as I'm going back to England this weekend will do it there. Quoted €520 for 2 vs £310 for same tyre. Thanks again Steve

Does anyone have a recommendation on whether in general tyres are a good buy in France? My C4 tyres are getting worn and I was thinking about gettin g them done here before returning to the UK - local dealers seem expensive to me however.

We have a requirement for several large items (washing machine, fridge, cooker) all at the same time, for delivery in Chatel (Savoie). The one local store seems very expensive (+50%) over online prices but I cannot establish whether if we buy from big chains  like BUT whether we can set a delivery date without actually going into the local store. With only a short trip available to do a lot of other tasks we don't want to have to spend the best part of a day trekking round trying to organise something and then find they can't do it while we are there anyway. Has anyone been able to resolve this kind of problem in mountain areas like this and have a recommendation for which chain will do it at a reasonable price? Steve

 The France Telecom outside cables from the street join to the inside wires with a couple of green terminal blocks about 2 cm diameter.  These don't appear to be doing anything other than holding some grease presumably against moisture but before I cut them off so I reconnect elsewhere do they do anything else that's important, i.e. are they capacitors or surge protection or something? Steve

Thanks Simon, good tip.

Pierre, you are a true gent! Many thanks for that offer, and the suggestion of being able to have both phone and internet in the one cable is very helpful as I have to thread it behind a huge and very prickly rambling rose! However, that raises one other small question, pardon my ignorance but I haven't played around wih this stuff at all before. If the cable already has the plugs on the end of it, how can I get at the 2 "spare" one for use with the phone?  Just take the insulation off a few inches back and cut the "unnecessary" ones free I guess? Cheers, Steve PS how do you want me to pay you for the cable if you get it and mail to my French address - do you have Paypal or something, or I can send you a e-bank transfer or cheque?

The Humax manual makes it clear that there will be only limited functionality (as far as having 2 or more channels available simultaneously) unless there are 2 separate cables to it, each feeding from its own LNB: the loopthrough doesn't substitute for that. From what you say you will need your technician to replace the existing LNB on the dish and have 2 cables all the way from there to your Humax box. It's a pretty simple job though since even I managed to do it!

Problem for network experts...... I'm trying to get the office connected in a stone house with multiple levels and thick walls. I have phone socket, broadband modem and wifi router in kitchen.  I find the wireless voice phone is no good in the office (there is enough signal to get a dial and ring tone but reception is useless).I have thouhgt about using the "mains wiring" network technique such as NetGear's Powerline but their engineer didn't think it would work - he says it needs to operate "from the same fuse box" and in his own house will e.g. work on 2 distant power points but not 2 adjacent ones as they are not the same fuse circuit. In essence it seems to connect via a ring main and the French house is set up not only with 3 phase but of course they are all separate spurs from the C/B box. 2) a "wifi booster" in an intermediate room but I have had varying reports of reliability and that doesn't solve the phone problem. So now I am wondering about running cables round the outside which would be about 20 metres. Phone extension cable would probably not be a problem but I am not sure about viability or availability of a network cable of that length from the router. Alternatively maybe I could plug a second router into an extension socket, but presumably I'd then need to get a second modem from Free.fr as well?   Any ideas from network experts? Is there any way to make it work with just an extension phone line? Steve

Can endorse eveything said here, I know zilch about satellites (don't have it in the UK) but I was able to simply change the dish head LNB with one with 2 connectors, replace the cable with a double one (from Maplin), and plugged it into the Humax PVR which does exactly what it should straight out of the box. Very pleased with it. Steve

Probably not a bad idea to fill up immediately before you get on the ferry.....  I just filled up at our local Intermarche fuel station as we plan a long journey tomorrow, & the girl there said they would be as normal - but it's probably very much a local decision?  I am more concerned to find out if there are plans to shut/block access to the autoroutes but can't find anything so far.

We have to drive from Provence to the west of Paris on Thursday and in conversation with French friends last night they mentioned the possibility of the tuckers indulging in rolling roadblocks, associated with the strikes planned for Thursday. Does anyone have any more definite knowledge of this? If they occur, do the radio traffic 10 7.7 people normally broadcast updates on where the problems are? Any suggestions for alternatives to our usual "straight up the autoroute" Montelimar/ Lyon / Beaune / Auxerre itinerary? (Other than "stay home on Thursday!!") Steve L