Steve Last

OK, done!

One thing I've just found is on the Free.Fr website it says one should remove the condensers inside the main phone socket as they really don't have any function and degrade the broadband signal. Can I take it that's correct?  (I know it's nothing to do with the wifi as such). Steve

Thanks for the excellent explanation!   <what flavour of WiFi has your laptop got. If its 'N' or 'Draft N' then you may benefit significantly from buying a matching router.>    what the spec in the manual says is "802.11 ABG, AGN and BG"  - which means nothing to me!! Cheers, Steve

Thanks Pierre, that's what I had thought. Unfortunately we don't have for example all the power sockets in a single room on the same phase, and it's almost impossible to find which is which as the banks of cbs are not consistently the same pahse (and aren't labelled of course! )    So I think we'll abandon that fidea and look at ErneyY's booster suggestion.  One other question though, what is the best direction for strength of those little antennas on a router - I had always assumed that they were radial and at 90 deg to the axis line of the antenna, i.e. if it's pointing straight up the signal is going equally in a horizontal "disc".  Is it worth attampting to align the antenna with where I want to receive? Steve

 OK, so I now have good phone and internet in the living room [:D]  but.....   now the router can't be seen in my office [:(] so I am wondering whether I should get a new router anyway.  Also wondering about whether the system which runs data around a house using the mains wiring would be worthwhile.  However even if it does I am doubtful if it would work with our mains which is 3 phase? Steve

Thank you Martin.   Excellent concise explanation which shows that despite looking similar the two systems have virtually nothing in common at all. <Aren't you glad you asked??!!> Yes, that will stop me generating the expensive smoke! ATB Steve

One last naive tech question:  we have 2 freeview receivers (one TV and one PVR) in the UK: both get their input from the same coax cable from the antenna in the loft and work OK. Why does a satellite system need a double LNB with 2 separate coax cables to achieve the same thing? Aren't the signals much the same in both cases and deciphering them similar? Steve.

How would a bottle of good Cote du Rhone Village ****  (won't say which until you want to come and collect it!!) do??

Thanks everyone, the lateral approach has paid off......     phone socket disconnected, cable pulled through wall, attached outside to wall nearer living room, hole made in window frame, socket re-attached, all plugged in, full signal strength where needed   in living room!  Now just have to sort out rats nest of cables...........     Incidentally phone connection is very simple for anyone interested, although there appear to be 8 wires of different colours connected to the socket, the only ones actually connected (in mine anyway!) are grey top left and white immediately below. Bonne soiree a tous.... Steve

Thanks ErnieY Radio channel I will see if I can fimd out how to do that! Similarly power level. The router is a Belkin G+, no other model ident that I can see. No physical problem with the laptops, both the same and ond is almost brand new. Am just going to have a look at where the line comes into the house - where I want it it would be quite a bit shorter too. The garbage at the top of my original post seems to be  because I wrote the original text on MS Word (because I'd lost the connection to hte forum!) and copy/pasted it into the message box here later. On posting it the garbage appeared. However when I reopened the message to edit it out it's not visible so can't be removed!  Cheers Steve

Thanks chaps....  unfortunately none of these seems to have done it, nothing has vchanged re positions of equipment or anything esle and there's no heat problem. One solution which has just occurred to me is to change the entry point to the house for the FT line. We can then relocate and update various bits of kit better for use throughout the house. It will actually shorten a number of extension cable runs and enable us to get cordless phones working in a number of other rooms too. Does anyone know how much FT charge for moving a line like that, before I start playing about with it myself?? Though I imagine DIY is probably illegal or contrary to FT's terms and conditions as well! Steve

many thanks, will try unplugging and cooling so taking the rest of the afternoon off the web! Steve

I have a Belkin Wireless G+ router which sits several rooms away from where we often use our laptops. It has worked quite satisfactorily for the last couple of years but we are now finding the signal strength severely diminished to the point where it is almost unusable. Do these things degrade with time? Is there any benefit in re-installing it from scratch - I'm reluctant to tinker unnecessarily in case I lose the whole thing! ? ps sorry I can't seem to get rid of all that formatting instruction, it isn't there when I try to edit!! formatting edited by a mod

Many thanks for all the advice, I will reflect on it all! I had been about to opt for the secondhand sky box until I read that Tim, as I don't have or want a Sky subs that was a good tip, so I will probably accept that the basic answer to my question is no, it's not available off the shelf in France. I'll take Anton's advice and source a FREESAT box in the UK for our next return by car, and change the sat dish head for the one with 2 cables. Thanks again, Steve

Thanks boiling a frog, that is what I had pretty much concluded after actually writing it all down!

Thanks VERY much Martin, that has filled in some of the many blanks in my knowledge....  will read again and digest!! Steve

Can I ask some fairly basic questions, which if answered I would then edit so it could be added to update Will’s FAQs page: that seems to stop in mid sentence and appears to date from about 4 years ago so may well be a bit out of date by now?  I read the recent thread on HD TV but am still VERY confused. I would like to update my current setup but not being a sat user in the UK am somewhat bamboozled by some of the terminology in English let alone in French - anyone remember the Rowan Atkinson sketch in which he htook the role of a typical "PC World" type shop assistant, mercilessly taking the p*** out of Mel Smith as an uninformed customer? Well I’m Mel Smith in that sketch. My setup at present: have a tube TV with built in VCR; second-hand sky box and a dish; separate DVD player.  We don’t want any subscription channels and the current box gets the channels we want without a card in the receiver. These are BBC1-4, ITV 1-4, Ch 4 and 5 etc., thatg is most of the UK Freeview channels. I also have Free.fr broadband but no TV connection through that at the moment.   I want to move to: flat screen TV with ability to watch one UK channel and record another; to programme recordings ahead of time; to watch a DVD while recording. In essence, this is the facility we have in the UK with Freeview on the TV and using a DVD/HDR with its own Freeview tuner.  Question is “Can I do this with equipment bought off the shelf in France?” Looking quickly at local stores I can see all the apparent components, but I don’t know if they will talk to one another as all the brands are different. But first I need some clarification of terminology so I don’t make a total $%^&&( of myself in any shop I go into! 1)      What does TNT actually stand for? One version I know is the courier company, is the other “Television Numerique Terrestrial” or something similar which I take to be the equivalent of UK Freeview. 2)      What does LNB stand for?    Next thing is about some specific example items   3)      Metronic brand “Decoder digital terrestrial” – this I take it would be the equivalent of a Freeview box and doesn’t take the satellite input. 4)      NEOM brand “Decoder TNT double tuner” – is this also a Terrestrial Digital box like (3) above? 5)      Iotronic brand "PVR/Adapteur TNT 2 tuners" – again presumably cannot take a satellite input? 6)      Metronic brand "Satellite analogue double tuner" – this would not read UK satellite signals? 7)      Schaub Lorenz "Adapteur TNT hard drive" – similar to (5)? 8)      Strong "SRT6410 TNTSAT" box – says it can access Astra satellite at 19.2E – is this what my dish would be pointing to at the moment? With our UK PVR box with a freeview tuner, plus another tuner in the TV, we can watch one programme while recording another, using just the one coax cable from the ordinary roof antenna which we haven’t touched – just one lead comes from it.  Can you do the same thing with the one lead here from the satellite dish? In the UK, the programme guide that shows via our (new) UK Panasonic DVD/HDR has a different appearance to that which we get on the new (Panasonic) TV alone, although both are the same brand.  Is part of the guide built into whatever is doing the decoding? – obviously the data comes in the signal but does a French box “read” UK programming guide data correctly?    Martin Watkins kindly noted in a different thread that “Any digital sat (DSat) receiver is now capable of tuning into all the BBC channels and all of ITV and ch 4 and ch 5” but does it automatically find them when the antenna is plugged into it? I guess in an ideal world, someone would be able to tell me “just get a “N brand” box which is a satellite receiver cum DVD cum recorder, plug your existing antenna in one end and your new “N brand” TV in the other and away you go" ….. but I suspect it’s not like that! Steve PS sorry about formatting stuff below, it seems to come because I originally wrote it in MS Word and I can't find any way to remove it as it doesn't show in the edit window.

Thanks very much! Unfortunately I also discovered my remote is kaput as well, so can't find a way to access the services functions through the buttons on the front, but the suggestion of just leaving the card in to update seems to have worked now anyway, so problem solved I think. Cheers! Steve

thanks for the advice, I just put the card back in and we'll see what happens.  Major problem got solved anyway: my wife is hooked on "Neighbours", now on Ch5, but was able to find a way to watch today's episode on YouTube! so that pressure is off!! Cheers Steve

I just turned on the box after a couple of months absence and was surprised to find that Ch 5 which used to be ok now gives me a message saying there's a problem with the card.  Other "free" channels inc 4 seem Ok - has there been a change recently? Also, when you say a "using a Numerique/digital TV receiver" ,  do you mean the type of French off the shelf receiver? Sorry to be dense but I'm not a Sky user in the UK and have Sky box here that a friend gave me with an old blue card with a yellow house on it I bought several years ago, and only just found as a result of reading this that it doesn't seem to needed for the free channels!! Steve L

Just had the same issue, wanted to go very early in January and never previously had a problem with getting a Frequent Traveller booking more than 2 months ahead, but the earliest I could get was Monday 5th. Wanted the 3rd but had forgotten that's a Saturday so booked up early with ski week traffic I guess.... Steve  

Apologies for not having replied to your kind offer - just after you sent it I got hit by a nasty virus problem and have had to set up afresh now back in the UK. How much do you want for a replacement remote? Best regards, Steve

Just spoke to Eurotunnel re a booking next Sunday evening and was told that I will be rebooked on nearest available which is as just stated currently one every two hours. Steve 

Thanks for the quick suggestions!  Yes it is a Sky digibox.  The TV has its own remote and that's OK. No neighbours with a similar box (in fact no close British neighbours!).   Initially it wasn't responding to the buttons on the front either, but I tried power off and restart, and now it does - will maybe try leaving it off longer.  I'm on northern edge of Vaucluse (84) near Vaison la Romaine. Steve

I have a Grundig Digibox which has the numbers GDS 310/2  and GAF 9700, it abruptly just stopped responding to its remote control after some power interruptions due to thunderstorms.   It is NOT the batteries, which are OK!  Is there any sort of reset procedure for these things to re-boot it? Don't have any manual as it was a gift and about 6 years old anyway. Steve