Barkham

I use a Netgear DG834G v2 modem/router with an Ethernet connection for my desktop and wifi for the laptop It works well enough as long as my lap top is reasonably close. However, we live in an old house with 50cm stone walls, and I can't get any reception through the walls. Is there any way of boosting it's transmitting power, or do I need a more modern device - if so, which?

To pick up on Tresco's suggestion about using Thuya rather than Leylandii, it is much easier to control. It is slower growing but makes a good dense hedge and doesn't need cutting nearly as often.   I made the mistake of filling a couple of gaps in my Thuya hedge with Leylandii and it's straggly and leggy, and grows much faster.  Unless you want to shade half of your garden, don't use Leylandii

While a flame gun should burn off brambles, especially after they have died back, I'm not convinced that it will be any more than a temporary fix. I doubt it will kill the roots. I wait the results with interest - especially whether the stuff regrows. Might need two or three years attacks. Anyway, a big flame gun sounds like a high class boy's toy to me. I've got a little gas one which is handy for getting bonfires going and setting light to mole killer gas cartridges.

    When I bought lime in UK it was sold as "Garden Lime", and was what I believe to be slaked lime.All I have found in France is chaux vive, ie quicklime, but in granular form, not powder. I have now obtained (left over from pointing job) some Chaux Hydraulique Naturelle, NHL 5-Z. Does anyone recognise this as being suitable for use in the garden?

   Just a small point on  Netgear modem. I have a DG834v2 which works very well - except! It won't transmit through the half metre stone walls in our old country house. I don't know if there's a later version which is better for this use.

I've looked at websites for Teleconnect and UK Telecom and am curious to know what experience anyone has with these providers for phone and broadband. The sites don't really make clear exactly what each package provides, and do users still have to pay an abonnement to FT in addition to the quoted fees? Or for any other providers?

I'm just thinking about downloading some music via the net, but most sites want MP3 format. Though I know more or less what MP3 is, I have no idea what sort of software I need to down load onto my computer. Please help.

Why not just use Firefox anyway? Apart from having a nicer feel, it isn't Microsoft, which must be a bonus.

Yes, alright, I said I'd shut up - it's just that I wouldn't want to give the impression that I'm so stupid that I don't understand the chemistry of a salt water system. Now I really will shut up.

I use a Netgear DG834G v2 wireless router. It works very well, except for the small snag that it doesn't have much of a range. We live in an old house with 50cm stone internal walls, and the reception through them is nil, which rather limits the value of the thing. Does anyone out there have successful operation in this sort of environment, with this or any other router, please?

Oh well, I'll shut up. I know that I have a clean pool with very little effort and that suits me. And by the way, no, I don't have any commercial interest in anything, only saving myself effort and money.

Well, Poolguy may sneer at those of us who don't want to live in a chemical laboratory, but there are many pools worldwide that use salt water electrolysis and they can't all be wrong. I used to go through all the pain of throwing money, sorry, chlorine products, into my pool and having it turn green if I turned my back for a couple of days. Since changing to salt I have had a pool with sparkling water that Poolguy would undoubtedly say is heaving with germs, but it's a risk I'm willing to take, and I wouldn't be letting my grandchildren swim in it if I wasn't confident of it's healthy state. To my mind the fact that, when I take off the winter cover, the water is clean, not green, speaks volumes. Incidentally, how many new municipal pools use chlorine?

Good gracious, I've been getting it wrong all these years. All I do is take off the cover (used to be a heavyweight winter cover, now I've got a bar reinforced one to meet the legal regs), remove the anti frost floats ( weighted plastic bottles held in place on lengths of cord) and net out the few leaves that have found their way in - if the cover fits, why should there be many? Then I put the drain plugs back in the pump and filter and get the circulation going. Normally the pool will be clean after one pass with the vacuum, sometimes I might have to do it a second time. I check the salt concentration level, which may need  some added, though it generally doesn't, check the pH and adjust if necessary. After that I enjoy swimming as soon as it's warm enough. I'd never realised I needed all these intensive, and doubtless expensive, checks. But then, I've never lowered the pool level in the winter or added any of the expensive winterisation chemicals. As I've only had the pool for thirteen years, perhaps something nasty is waiting for me. It used to be more difficult before I changed to salt electrolysis in 2000, but since then, child's play.

Following Cat's comments (20/01/07),  would a Pacte de Famille: a. Have to be written in French? b. Is there a special format, and where could I find it? c. As Cat says it must be witnessed by two notaires, would that mean that the child renouncing his rights have to be physically present in France when the signing takes place?

    The front of our house is rendered, half in a cement render, the rest in what I assume is an old lime render, which is starting to fall off. The walls are traditional stone filled with muck, and I want to re-render the damaged half using an appropriate material, not cement. Could anyone please advise me of the correct materials and mix, and any tips for application. The only lime I've come across here is quicklime, which doesn't sound right to me