Gemini_man

There's some really interesting old places to see here: http://www.franco-oldtimers.org/index.php?n=Main.HomePage

[quote user="banyuls diver"] What is "Thunderbird"? Is it an option to type directly into an e-mail? Is it down-loadable?[/quote] Thunderbird is a mail handler program. You can configure it to handle your e-mails from mixed sources ie. Orange, Hotmail, Yahoo etc. It's free and comes from Mozilla who also produce Firefox. It's an open source program so it's non-commercial and is supported by a community of users - in other words "it's a good thing" [:D]. I've used it for four years and although in it's infancy it was somewhat quirky there have been big improvements with each version. The latest version Thunderbird 3.0 became available earlier this month and looks to have plenty of innovations and now that Christmas is over I'm about to upgrade to it myself. It's available here: http://en-gb.www.mozillamessaging.com/en-GB/thunderbird/

Excellent news Clair [:D] I connect via Free to the net and the Freebox gives consecutive IP numbers to each computer that's connected, maybe your box doesn't do that. Having said that .... several times during the past week or so I've had to reboot my Freebox and repair my connection in order to connect to iPlayer - I don't know why and tbh nor am I particularly interested so long as I can eventually connect when I want to. Oh yes, and from time to time I find the iPortal icon has disappeared from my desktop so I just re-install the program. Mind you, having not watched UK TV for almost 20 years it's a bit of an eye opener [blink]. At least with iPlayer you can be selective [:P].

Download helper on Firefox works fine for any streaming videos.

Dawn, If he registered in the Dordogne it will be here: CHAMBRE DE METIERS 32 Boulevard Lakanal BP 5081 24005 Périgueux Cédex

Dawn, If you want to check a siret number or find out who it's registered to you can do so here: http://www.easysiret.com/numero-siret/numero-siret.htm or here: http://www.cartegiedirect.com/recherche-siret-siren/ Just ignore me if that's not what you wanted. [:)]

I noticed one in a rental catalogue yesterday at 27.50€ per day: http://www.locatoumat.com/index.php?action=recherche They have branches in 16, 17 and 24.

I had the same thing when I registered a new account on a different address, always the same U and P, didn't make any difference though. Come to think about it, I suspect my problem may have started after my son came back for the weekend and also connected his laptop to the Freebox. We have had a situation in the past where there's been an IP conflict and the only answer was to reboot the box. Maybe worth trying a reboot with your Alicebox.

I used iPortal with no problems for a couple of weeks then one day it wouldn't connect, just kept timing out on checking my password. I tried re-installing the program but still didn't work. In the end I switched my Freebox off, it rebooted and then iPortal worked fine again. Sometimes I also have buffering problems at peak times, just depends on your connection speed and bandwidth I expect. It seems to work better when I watch in a pop out window and close the BBC page and anything else I don't need to have open.

[quote user="AnOther"]Following on from THIS thread I've just signed up with Orange for Internet/TV/Unlimited calls @ €49.90 inclusive (and how easy was that [:D]) [/quote] Gratz Ernie. Good move, I hope you'll be very happy together [:P]

[quote user="pachapapa"]The iPortal IP seems to be used by all users VPN proxying on the site. Resulting in an amusing conundrum on "another forum"[:D], last night. Whilst watching BBCiPlayer I posted on the forum, of course the log showed up as the iportal IP. BUT three others seemed to have done the same resulting in three "krackers" with the same IP and for some reason an unexplained transposition of "nicks".[/quote] Haha I'd love to have been there, I bet all concerned were thinking wtf ......? [:D] When I originally checked up on the .me registration I looked at Wiki  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.me but I didn't read the whole page. Now I have done while having my lunch and it's quite clear so I understand what you say. I've always only connected to iPortail when I want to watch TV and disable it as soon as I've finished watching which is probably just as well with regard to forums. [:)]

I've been with Free 6 years or more and I think that even if you were a customer of Free they wouldn't send their own engineers to check the line because you are not degroupé consequently the line is the total responsibility of FT/Orange. If you were degroupé it could be different as you would be paying Free for your line and they in turn would pay FT for the maintenance. How's your French? Here's a link that explains how it happens if degroupé: http://tinyurl.com/yzjxzvy. I've searched on Free forums but nowhere have I seen anything about their engineers meeting up with FT engineers so I don't know where that has originated from other than in the link posted above. Have you asked FT directly what would be the best they could supply you if you hypothetically changed from Telespit to them?

On BBC Live towards top right there's a location [change] where you can choose which local news and progs you see, you can change it as often as you like [:)].

[quote user="Richard"]That iportal also works if you want to watch itv live on the net. [/quote] "That's a turn up for the books" [:D] have just watched Arthur Daley live on ITV!! It also works with BBC Live http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/watchlive/   Magic no need for me to get TNT now [:P]

[quote user="Clair"] I wonder if the software works with Vista...? [8-)] Gemini_man uses XP and the software works. AnOther has mentioned before he had not upgraded to Vista and the software works. I have Vista and got an error message. What about Sid? [/quote] Clair I think you're spot on. I just found this: "Ah, you may have the same thing as me if you're running vista on your PC. The network connection asks you for a number but if you click 'properties' then check the box that says you are already connected to the internet, it should work as it did for me." And that was on AI so it MUST be true [:D]  Try again maybe?

[quote user="Richard"]Probably won't matter anyway. The Beeb are on to it. Expect it to be shut down in the future. [/quote] I'm not sure how much sway the Beeb will have in Montenegro [:P]

Sorry to hear that both. The only thing I can suggest if you want to persevere is to contact iPortal at   [email protected] apparently they seem keen to help!

[quote user="AnOther"]I must confess that having received the information I don't really understand why it should be confined to PM's but as it's Gemini_man's little project I'll let him decide whether to out it or not. [/quote] Fair comment. I picked this tip up on another forum and was surprised to find it worked and worked well. I didn't want to simply re-post from another forum, even though that happens quite a lot, as I know how annoying that can be to the original poster. So, I'll post the details here now and I hope those who are more technical and knowledgeable than I can share with us their views about it. Firstly, go to this site  http://www.iportal.me/  and register. They send you a login and password, it took about 2 hours for mine to arrive. Return to the site, login and download the connection file. Once you are connected to iPortal you should then be able to use BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand5 without problems depending on your internet speed as streaming TV is obviously fairly demanding. I have found though that if you are connected to iPortal and don't have anything playing it tells you it's going to disconnect after some minutes. Someone sent me this note after he had installed the iPortail prog: "One thing: after I had installed the software Windows (XP SP3) SFC (System File Checker) kicked in complaining about a changed file and I had to dig out my original slipstreamed XP CD to replace it, not everyone will have the ability to do that so to protect yourself it might be an idea to add a note to anyone else you send this to. Don't know if Vista will be affected." I personally didn't get this notice from windows because I'm running XP SP2. I don't know the implications of it but for some people their anti-virus and/or firewall stop them from using iPortal. It's interesting to note though that the .me domain address for iPortal is registered in Montenegro [8-)], I originally thought it was Mexico. Not sure which would be worse to be honest!! Anyway, hope it works OK for you and any feedback will be welcome.

PM sent with details Richard.

[quote user="Richard"] BBC iplayer is not available overseas, even if you use uk proxy servers to try and trick the system. [/quote] Strange that seeing as I'm just watching "Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow - 4. Swansea" on iPlayer and I'm in France [blink]

[quote user="Cat"]Shipping fee scams, 2,950,000 (and rising) reasons not to get caught out by them.[/quote] and here is how it would have been done: found via Cats link - http://www.scambuster419.co.uk/classifiedadscams.htm Which accounts for why when I tried to order a Shoei motorbike helmet the other day from a UK supplier, because it was a) in stock and b) much cheaper than in France, they would only accept payment by Paypal or by Bank transfer. They would only accept credit card payment if delivery was in the UK even though my Barclaycard has my French address.

[quote user="tegwini"] Does anyone know if you can get IPlayer in France, and can UK residents send links to it to, for example France,  that will actually open ? Many thanks Tegwini [/quote] There is a site which is currently beta testing a service which allows you to connect to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand5. At the moment there's no charge but that will eventually change. I've used it a lot this week without any problems other than it does, inevitably, hog quite a lot of bandwidth. I have to admit I've enjoyed watching Strictly Come Dancing for the first time and I was delighted to see Bruce Forsythe, I thought he died ages ago [:-))] [:$]. If anyone wants the details send me a PM, I never get any mail here normally [:(], and I'll pass on the details. There are no catches, it's very simple, just requires an e-mail address, download a small program then connect to the sites.

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Gemini_man"]Bah (3 characters) I can never get that to work [:(][/quote] Take a look here [:)] [/quote] O (I character) Thank you Clair, all is now clear [I][:D]

My house is insured through Generali. I have a claim outstanding with them since 2006 for substantial cracks in the wall of a barn due to secheresse. The expert duly passed and agreed that was the cause. Since then Generali have done nothing, apart from buck passing on the telephone. I have recently told them that I am writing to the moderateur, as I have not been able to get any answers, which provoked them to look at my file again. They are now trying to wriggle out of responsibility on a technicality. I cannot recommend them which is a shame as the local agent has always been very helpful and obliging but in this case there's nothing he can do because it is being dealt with in Paris.

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Gemini_man"][quote user="BIG MAC"]Sorry about the mahoosive link! http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.shire-uk.com/images/new%2520outside%2520-%2520rh%2520front%2520w.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.shire-uk.com/&usg=__WwKwj29cWGWJxBRcGqdyAz0t654=&h=334&w=502&sz=56&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=_8AIm6jd37CBNM:&tbnh=86&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dshire%2Bconsulting%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG [/quote] http://tinyurl.com/    works wonders [:)] enter your link (328 characters) it becomes http://tinyurl.com/yj2nooj  (26 characters). [/quote] Or simply THIS (4 characters) [:)][/quote] Bah (3 characters) I can never get that to work [:(]