Steve Last

How can I change the size of the displayed text in these forums (fora?) !?!?! It now seems to come out so small I need my glasses to see it which I didn't used to - using Internet Explorer's View/Text Size has no effect......... Thanks Steve 

How can I change the size of the displayed text in these forums (fora?) !?!?! It now seems to come out so small I need my glasses to see it whichj I didn't used to - using Internet Explorer's View/Text Size has no effect......... Thanks Steve 

I've been using the "France Free" IP for the last couple of years with no complaints until just recently when the performance seems to have gone right down: typically I can get a quick log-on but the received data rate is so slow that my email provider thinks it has dropped off - I am talking about only 350 bytes received after 30 seconds and just sitting for a minute or more with maybe 1200 bytes received. Is anybody else having this problem and does anyone have an alternative recommendation for a free ISP (broadband not available here unfortunately). Steve     

After quite normal usage Wednesday, when we turned the set on last night I got a "no satellite signal" message. Turned it off overnight and this morning got same message initially, and turned it off again. Later noticed that the time was in error by about 2 hours. Then got the "looking for channels" message instead so left it alone. Came back later to find time was correct and channel listings appeared to be OK but "no satellite signal" message is back. My neighbour Helios (in Vaucluse 84) has had no problems and suggested that the dish has got moved by the wind, but before I climb up and start mucking around with it does anyone have any other suggestions??? Thanks Steve

Having found the France Meteo service website very useful in the past with a 5 day graphic forecast available for dozens of towns, it appears to have been changed now to a much less "friendly" service which will only provide forecasts if you pay a subscription. Can anyone else recommend and alternative free service which gives departmental or regional forecasts up to say 4 days ahead? Steve Copy of message also put in Postbag

You might want to consider Onspeed (www.onspeed.com) which has been highly recommended as a substitute for broadband for some purposes and may be useful to you if you can't get or don't want to pay for BB. Essentially it is a service which reroutes all your ISP traffic through its own servers where it is highly compressed before retransmitting it. Results in some loss of graphics quality on web pages but seems to give much faster page loading. It's a subscription service at about 35 Euros a year. One drawback is the basic principle of having your email go through someone else's servers before getting to you but that may not bother you. See also the topic "Wanadoo Booster package" for more on this. Steve

Just spoke with my daughter who travelled out last Weds a.m. and back last night (Thurs). They are both quite outspoken in their opinions if they think things are not good value. They said the staff were extremely courteous, service was smooth and on time and they were overall very impressed. The boat is obviously not new, but they didn't think it dirty at all, it was very uncrowded and they thought that a big "plus" is the lack of foot/coach passengers. They paid for the 10 "club" service and said everything was delivered as expected, but as it was not full the first on/first off benefit was a bit marginal and they probably wouldn't bother with it in future. We are trying it ourselves in July (5 & 27), at 50 return it seemed worth a punt as my Eurotunnel block booking of 5 "homeowners rate" (about 150) returns had run out last month. I'll renew that if Speedferries lets us down, but for midweek travel with no particular deadlines it seems like a good option and anything which brings a more realistic cost/fare model into this market is worth encouraging. Steve

We bought a house in a village 5 km NE of Vaison 4 years ago and like it very much indeed - spend about 4 months a year there and will do more when we can. The '92 flood catastophe was caused by a build up of debris upstream which broke in a big thunderstorm and the surge did the damage. No significant problems since as far as I am aware though people get nervous during major storms like the last 2 Septembers' which caused so much flooding in the Rhone valley itself. The town has a great combination of Roman, Medieval, + 19thC architecture and has concentrated on up-market tourism - lots of culture (music and art) etc. A number of decent restaurants (32 in the yellow pages!) and it stays alive in the winter unlike a lot of other places. Excellent weekly market. Summer does get very crowded like all of Provence. The surrounding countryside is a great mix of cultivation (good Cote du Rhone) and wild as it marks the start of the southern Alps. Happy to comment further by email if you like. Steve

Don't have an answer but some friends think that Teleconnect is a good deal - anyone else have an opinion on this? Steve

I have everything working fine on a 23.50 card, except I get a message that I have the "wrong card for the set top box" on ITV2. There is a comment from Gwynydd on an earlier thread that ITV2 is "paired" but I am not sure what that means in the context of a 23.50 Free2view card. We can get ITV2 with terrestrial Freeview in the UK so I would not have expected it to be a subs channel on the card. No big deal as ITV2 does not show anything I will feel deprived of if I can't see it, but I was just curious.... Steve

If you are considering buying one of the new Worldspace satellite radios mentioned in LF this month in order to get BBC radio (as I was) be aware that I am advised by one of the leading retailers that this will ONLY get the Worldspace system which carries about 50 channels on its African satellite (the one you access from France). However the BBC output from this is limited to the African and Arab news-oriented version of the World service. (You can get a complete listing from the website www.worldspace.com I had been hoping that with an additional booster antenna it would also be possible to point it at a different satellite (Astra?) to get the BBC radio 1 2 3 & 4 which I am informed is a free broadcast channel, but apparently it's not so. If anyone finds a cost effective way to get good BBC radio reception in the south (Vaucluse) could they please advise me? Thanks Steve