clarksinfrance

its still the cheapest by far, and piggybacks on the SFR netwoork, so amongst the best coverage throughout France. Yes it costs €1.50 a month, but just about all the other PAYG systems entail a €10 for 15 days credit, or €20 for 2 months. Calls are not prohibitively expensive abroad (sending and receiving), and you can receive calls in France from abroad for free. All the others you pay to receive the call. The credit lasts a year, then if you top it up at the end of the year, it carries all the credit forward for a further 12 months. If you use your mobile a fair bit, there is a declining scale of charges, though there comes a point, where it would be cheaper to have a contract mobile.

yep, leclerc cheapest by far

Change to IE7, then you have the option to open links in either a new window or a new tab, if you use new tab, it is full size, unfortunately, the new window option is still about 33% of full size.

that is correct Will, but if you buy €10 with FT PAYG, it lasts 15 days.

I will attempt to answer some of your questions/theories etc. 1. Its good your house has a phone line, at the very least you will be able to get some kind of connection. 2. You can continue to use all your software loaded on your laptop, though you will need to setup a new account in Outlook; with your new details. 3. If you want ADSL (as your post suggests) Orange and Teleconnect do provide without contract ADSL connections. Both ISPs endeavour to provide UPTO 8Mbs/sec (megabits/second). Orange is all in French, Teleconnect all in English. Both services have other options including VoIP (telephone using the internet). 4. To connect to the ADSL service once you have your box, you will need an ADSL filter for each telephone socket in the house, that is in use. 5. Both Orange and Teleconnect will provide the relevant cables that you need. 6 Next steps are to look at both web-sites and decide which provider you wish to use, taking careful note of all small print. 7. One small drawback with the Teleconnect service is the fact that you need to use a free, web-based e-mail service such as google or yahoo. One small drawback with Orange is that their e-mail has a 1.3MB limit. Does this help/clarify?

there is a 1 year holiday from CGT burden in cases like this, I belive it is possible to extend upto 2 years in certain circumstances. Others may know the relevant legislation for this.

If there is 1 tip I can give anyone at the mo about conjoint collaberateur, is DON'T DO IT AT THE MOMENT, RSI seem to have a backlog of work, we had a letter on Saturday regarding the notice we sent in in June last year; and until such time as it is cleared they will take 2 whole lots of pension payments off you. They are still trying to take €1198/mth, and cannot organise the paperwork correctly to split the deductions 2 ways and send it to 2 individual pots.

As the TV licence is now part of the Taxe d'Habitation, I believe your details are no longer forwarded to the relevant authorities. If you don't have a TV you have to "opt out". Don't know how difficult/easy this is though.

A well fitted and operated wood burner should leave very little ash in it. It certainly shouldn't be belching smoke/ash into the room when you open the door, try opening it a bit slower, so that air pressure isn't reduced out side the fire. We only need to clean the ash from our woodburner (a cheapy insert which we use as a stand-a-lone) about once a month or so.

Can have upto 5 email addresses with Orange, as said to download 2 different email addresses to Outlook or OE need to set up 2 accounts ( 1 for each address) both will have different passwords though server details will remain the same. To change from *****@wanadoo.fr to *****@orange.fr see here: http://www.orange.fr/bin/frame.cgi?u=http%3A//assistance.orange.fr/2027.php%3Fdub%3D2%26 HIH

It seems that the maximum email size has been increased (don't know when) all the details are here: http://www.orange.fr/bin/frame.cgi?u=http%3A//assistance.orange.fr/308.php%3Fdub%3D2%26 If you are still having probs sending largish mails, hal way down the page under REMARQUE, it shows an option to split large e-mails (SCINDER To split). I have never tried this (I didn't even know it existed anywhere), but it may be worth a go? Having re-read the Orange page shown above, I must say it is damned confusing (to me anyway). It seems to be saying you can send upto 10Mb messages, then under REMARQUE it states: La messagerie internet sur orange.fr est limitée à environ 1.3 Mo par message en envoi. So 1.3Mb it is, either try to split your e-mails, or sign up for a different service. Hope it helps

ernie are you the same poster as philouis? If you are and your ISP is Teleconnect, you will shortly lose your wanadoo email priviledges (sp?). In this case you need a free e-mail service like yahoo, or my preference at the mo is for googlemail. If your not the same person and you have Wanadoo/Orange as your ISP, there is a restriction on size of e-mails that can be sent, (I don't know what it is, will try to find out, but I do know that many MS Office documents before the 2007 flavour, can indeed be larger than the maximum size allowed). Also if you have Wanadoo/Orange, you need to change your e-mail address to [email protected] (via your "espace client") which will allow your wanadoo emails to be delivered for a while but changing your e-mail addy to orange. You will need to change your account settings in Outlook/Outlook Express. Just found this on the MS site: You receive a 0x8004210B operation time-out error message when you choose to send a read receipt notification in Outlook 2000 or in Outlook 2003So it maybe when/if you ask for a read receipt (this may be set so that all your emails ask for a read receipt). Hope it helps.

Teleconnect are correct, it only needs 2 wires, white and gray pair.  If you look at the upside down T shaped socket, the top 2 left connectors are used, with gray at the top left, and white at the 2nd one down. (God I hope I got that right; if not the other way round). But just in case you want to put it back, the colour scheme is shown here: http://www.aidaubricolage.com/bricolage5.html

The tax on Hard Disc Drives, is in fact a tax on recordable media, such as: cds, dvds, hard disc drives, it is to help combat lack of revenue for recording artists, due to illegal downloads. If it hasn't happened already, it will do in the nearish future, your internet service is also to recive an extra tax, also to go into the recording artists pot. Its not a massive amount, but its there, the ISPs may decide to forward this cost to you the user. On an aside, I recently purchased some dvds of various flavours from the UK, including p&p it came to £52, the same items purchased here in France, was over €600, surely the government must realise that eventually most people will buy their stuff electronically from wherever gives them the best value for money, therefore losing valuable tax euros. Can't figure it out myself.

Right here we go then. Firstly it is not always necessary (it certainly isn't law) to have a flexible flue liner. If the chimney is in a sound condition, it will suffice, this must be checked by a competent installer. If you use a flexible flue-liner,  make sure it is of the variety for multi-fuel/woodburning fires, not the type for gas. It is necessary to have a solid pipe to connect the woodburner to a flexible liner, this can be stainless steel or enamelled but must be 1mm thick steel. Any joints need female end to point skyward, and male end downwards (no sniggering); this keeps the condensates in the flue. Yes a register plate should be fitted, be it for an open chimney, or flexible flue liner. An access point for easy sweeping should be incorporated to the configuration. If your woodburner has a rear exit (not on top) 150mm is the maximum horizontal run allowed. Never reduce the flue size, (it is against the law/normes/directives/standards and will give an insurance company an easy "out" if any problems arise); it is always preferable to use the same size flue, as hole in the woodburner, its what it has been designed to use. It is permissable to go up in size, providing there is enough draw in the liner. (This depends on dozens of criteria). Flue or chimney must be swept twice a year, once during the burning season. Do not have more than 2 bends in a flue (preferable no more than 22.5 degrees, maximum allowed 45 degrees). There are many regulations concerning the exit of the flue, such as distance to boundaries, roofs, neighbours, height etc, a competent, qualified installer will be able to explain these regs. An installation plate must be fitted near the appliance, with certin info such as how many bends, type of construction, name address of installer and 1 or 2 other things. Room must have adequate ventilation. Metal flue liners are deemed to last 10 years, but a poorly fitted one can last as little as 4,  (as someone on a French forum can testify to recently) the condensates are very corrosive. Just to clarify, I am not a fitter, but having been had numerous people telling me many different things, I decided to research the rules and regs myself, if only to demistify the subject. In the end, I fitted my own woodburner, and used a €150 insert from Brico Depot. This is all we use to heat our longere and we use 2 steres of wood a winter (2/3 a chord) at a cost of €100, but it is well insulated. So I believe a well fitted woodburner is much more efficient, economical and cheaper to run than an expensive burner fitted badly. Some idea of materials prices: flexible liner 180mm €22/m ss tube 180mm x 1m €30 chapeau €30 A tip if you have the space is to surround the old chimney with high density fire proof insulation with reflective foil facing the room, this will increase the heat emmitted to the room 3 fold (your old stone walls won't be soaking the heat up as a large heatsink. Hope this is of some use.

FT may have completed some works on the exchange, or phone lines in the last year, which will have some effect on the transmit speeds, but also as more people sign up for ADSL, and use the exchange, it will mean you will loose speed.

at 5kms I'm surprised you get more than 512Kb, as its about as far as ADSL goes, unless you have ReADSL? That said, have you tried reseting your MODEM/ROUTER? it may help. If you can't find the reset button, just unplug it for a few seconds, then plug it back in and wait for it to do its thing.

first of all find someone who belongs to BF property owners club, and ask for their membership number (it can now be used as many times as they like), and try to book again using that, or does your trip have to be Plymouth - Roscoff? Have you tried LD Lines from Portsmouth - Le Havre? usually much cheaper, but depending where you set out, and where you want to finish, it can become a trade-off between price saving, and time taken. My experience in high summer is that LD is upto 80% cheaper.

European games generally have a choice of 5 languages, look for the multi flag symbol on the front or back

If you are using Outlook, or outlook express, or may work for other e-mail clients as well. Open your software, at the top left-hand corner should be the word "FILE" click on it, and a menu will open. Somewhere on the menu will be an option to "BACKUP" or "ARCHIVE" click on this and follow the instructions. easy-peasy

unfortunately you have no choice if you use the livebox and wi-fi.

Have found the distance allowed for horizontal runs, its 150mm, but must not have more than 2mm deflection. to go through some thick walls (1m in some longeres), the flue should be run through on an angle, as 150mm is obviously too short. 45 degrees is what is usually applied.

Paul, for Vista, you will need a cd specifically for that operating system, having said that, are you connecting with wi-fi or ethernet cable, or USB? If using wi-fi or ethernet, don't bother loading the Orange software, it is not a well written bit of code, and in fact it is easier to use the network connection manager in Vista. If using wi-fi and an Orange supplied dongle you will need to download a little bit of software for the dongle, but I can't remember what its called. All the other info needed to connect is the WEP key which is either on the bottom of your livebox, or on the box it came in. And to remember to "associate" the dongle to the livebox. Its even easier if using an ethernet cable, just connect the cable.

Sheila just hazarding an educated guess here, but it sounds as though you might not have a flue liner??. From your description, it sounds like you have stainless steel tube(s) going partway up a chimney, then opening out to the old stonework chimney, at a register-plate (which is a plate blocking the chimney). If this is the case it may be that over several or many years, the lime mortar between the stones has soaked up the condensates, and now whenever the conditions are right, (a bit of heat) the condensates are liquifying and, thanks to gravity, dribbling down the walls of the chimney. If this is the case, it may be necessary to install a flue-liner, these can be flexible metal, certain plastics, clay, concrete, or twin-walled insulated tubes. To stop the condensates held in the mortar joints getting warm/hot and flowing, it will almost certainly be necessary to insulate the flue liner. Just so you know, the flexible liners are about €20 a metre. and should only take a good day to fit, with new register plate, insulation, and sealing, and testing. If you go this route, a professional installer must also fix an installation plate describing the make-up of the new flue. Your stainless steel tubes certainly should have the female part skyward, and the male part downwards. (no sniggering). I am not an expert, so, please do not take my word as gospel. I just write this in the hope that it may help.

It is perfectly acceptable to have a 90degree bend from an outlet at the back of a wood burner, but there are regulations, on the length of horizontal run, (can't remember the length at this point in time). It is advised in all regulations I have come across to keep any change in direction as shallow as possible, and certainly no more than 2 changes, in a flue. 22.5 degrees are indeed better than 45degrees. Female ends point up, male down; always been this way,  Use Mortiere Refractaire (sp??) to seal joints.