Breton Networks

[quote user="dave21478"]Although I say im computer literate, I dont want to become some kind of system admin geek here as Im not up to it and dont enjoy doing it, but leaving a free computer for th epublic to use I think is asking for trouble. Anyone got any opinions [/quote] A Google search on 'internet kiosk software' will return dozens of software solutions, even Microsoft tell you how to do it http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555463, A router/modem such as the NetGear DG834 has settings that will block access to various types of 'undesirable' sites   

[quote user="spg"] I live in Brittany too, and we have had no problems at all with our ADSL; so what problems have you experienced that you have made you so emphatically negative in your response? Sue [/quote] We lose our connection for a few minutes a few times most days but most of the time it reconnects automatically so don't notice the disconnection. I can let you have the 18nc.com logs if you are interested. My comment was more that ADSL is not a guaranteed, or a 100% reliable technology anywhere, which is why companies & organisations still use (very) expensive leased lines in 'Mission Critical'  applications.  

[quote user="LyndaandRichard"]It's not the people who are allowing the isp to block. It is the isp themselves. [/quote] It's the people who aren't complaining to their ISPs that they are blocking e-mails or it's the people who choose ISPs who block e-mails. Like others I'm not sure how an ISP can block e-mails that don't pass through their own POP server.  

[quote user="Phil and Lesley"] as I need permanent ADSL [/quote] No such thing, I'm afraid, anywhere.

[quote user="trevour"] On return to France this year (maison secondaire) we were abliged to switch from Wanadoo to Orange as a local ISP. Much to our dismay Orange.fr is a banned ISP by Telecom, (Bigpond) Australia. I quote from a Bigpond representative  "Orange.fr  are actually blacklisted by TrendMicro's MAPS RBL+ and QIL databases. These are reputation based  blocklists and are used by Bigpond as our primary anti spam defence. Orange.fr  have a particularly bad global record of supporting and hosting spammers and as such their mail servers are almost constantly blacklisted as one or more spammers use them to deliver millions of garbage emails. You have probably picked the worst ISP in Europe to deal with except for the Russians". Users beware! [/quote] Why do people allow their ISPs to block e-mail ? Can they guarantee that they never block legitimate e-mail ?  

[quote user="P2"]The only problem I have is trying to install RealPlayer as it hangs.[/quote] Try Real Alternative (www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm ) it's not as intrusive as RealPlayer. Norton, just say no.  

If you go to http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/index.asp & enter the model number you should be able to find the power management program but it would appear that it's not available for all models. Regards

Try Start | Control Panel | Power Options | Power Management, but this does not seem to be available on all laptops.   Regards

[quote user="BJSLIV"] and it may even be red hot with incoming calls. [/quote] For which they get (handsomely) paid. Regards

We live in a small Breton hamlet called Rubertel & while not ready to accept guests for another month, are thinking of just calling our B & B (& Gite) Rubertel. Is this a good idea ? Regards

[quote user="mascamps.com"] It's true that adwords can be geotargetted but then presumably google itself does the same thing with results.[/quote] Possibly but why would it [quote]As far as I'm aware google.com/google.co.uk results are not always the same when used from France and from the UK.[/quote] I've done 6 searches from computers in France & the UK using the same search terms & they all returned identical results. [quote] Searching on "Chambres d'Hotes Languedoc" doesn't prove that wrong since we're in the midst of the holiday season so all the really active site promoters are going to be going full pelt and therefore the first couple of pages could well be identical on a search like that at the moment. [/quote] I chose that search term at random because Quillans' web site mentioned it & it was regional, if you don't have access to a computer in the UK, let me have a search term & I'll check that. I don't understand the rest of your comment. [quote]You may have noticed that similar searches carried out at different times of the year can produce very, very different lists of results.[/quote] Searches on the same terms can produce different results even a few hours apart. Regards  

[quote user="Russethouse"] I have been reading this with interest so I just tried Bed and Breakfast Languedoc on Google.co.uk and then on Google.com and got different orders of results, so maybe getting the same result  is only true of some search terms ?[/quote] That is an interesting search, the first pages of the results I saw were identical apart the the 2nd item on .com which didn't appear anywhere on the first 3 pages of the .co.uk search, but when I put Bed and Breakfast in quotation marks "Bed and Breakfast" Languedoc the results are the same. I point I was making was that it makes no difference whether the search is done in the UK or France. Regards  

[quote user="mascamps.com"] UK hosts wouldn't necessarily pick up on it as they might well not be aware of the effect. [/quote] If you have noticed, I'm sure they would have. [quote]However, I have seen several make a point of highlighting that there is an SEO advantage for them to be located in London. [/quote] There can be a SEO advantage by being on a fast/reliable server, they could mean this [quote]I suspect that most people in the UK use a UK host by default [/quote] Not in my experience [quote]so perhaps they don't bother mentioning the advantage because it doesn't affect massive numbers of people. [/quote] You don't know much about marketing :-) they would mention it if it only effected one person [quote]For one thing, you've probably noticed that you get French language adverts on adsense on websites which presumably wouldn't appear were you in the UK. [/quote] As you can set Adwords for specific locations that's not surprising, I have an ad running that only shows in Brittany, so you wouldn't see it even though you are in France. Regards

[quote user="mascamps.com"] This implies that google always uses your real location (as per your IP address) to prioritise the results on the basis that there are loads more US/Canadian websites than there are British/Irish ones. [/quote] It doesn't, I have just done google.co.uk & google.com searches on "Chambres D'Hotes Languedoc" from a computer in France & another in the UK & the first 2 pages of results are EXACTLY the same on all searches. Regards

[quote user="Quillan"]  I assume that although I am using a UK PC I am located in France. It may therefore possibly follow that the UK google will default to .co.uk. It would make sense that google defaults to the country you are in when you start it up, it would be convenient I guess. [/quote] It does, you can alter the language and/or the country in the preferences. It's not difficult, on my sons web site it determines where the visitor is from & sets the pricing & currency based upon that. Regards  

[quote user="mascamps.com"] On the circular argument front, I do accept that if I were sitting on the other side of the fence [/quote] Just to set the record straight, I'm not on the 'other side of the fence', we have our own server located in Tele House in London. If your were correct I would expect that every UK based hosting company would use it as a selling point, as far as I can see, none do. Regards

[quote user="mascamps.com"] Quite simply from everywhere. [/quote] Try using something like Google Analytics!, that will give you a much clearer idea where visitors are coming from. [quote]I agree with you that it shouldn't happen but it is a fact of life that it happened with my collection of sites and some others that I know of who changed from US hosting to European hosting. This implies that some search engines do look under the hood so to speak and use the hosting location as one element of the ranking algorithm. I suspect that the lesser search engines don't have the computer power to do this but it would appear that google and yahoo (not sure about the msn results) do and they are by far the most significant search engines around.[/quote] This is getting circular, but to quote an expert who has read your comments: There are two essential facts to consider from the outset: 1. He is wrong 2. He will not accept that he is wrong. My advice is to leave it at that. Let him wallow in his wrongness. [quote]My guess is that the domain also matters to a significant extent too in that my .co.uk listing site does much better than it should as compared to it's .com and .org equivalents.[/quote] It is rumoured that a .co.uk will appear higher on google.co.uk than a .com & the reverse may be true. Regards

[quote user="mascamps.com"] I did look at the referrer stats and the like before and after the move and it appears that UK sourced hits on the site were what went up but it was very much an across the board 10 fold jump.[/quote]   And where did all those extra 'hits' come from ? Regards Nick Thompson

[quote user="Benjamin"]Welcome to the forum Nick.[/quote] Thanks [quote]I'm shortly to be attempting to build a web site (the first one as I'm an amateur) for my son's fledgling business.[/quote] Good luck [quote]Hosting will be something that I will have to sort out so I'm intrigued by your comment. Care to expand?[/quote] Benjamin, I'll try & hope I'm not doing a 'granny & eggs' thing. Web sites are linked to a domain (mydomain.com etc) & domains (or more usually virtual domains) are hosted on a server, this server can be on anything from your home computer to a dedicated server on a high speed (backbone) connection. Visitors to a web site have to come from somewhere, this can be via a search engine (google, yahoo etc), links from sites like this, print advertising etc. it depends upon on what you see as your market & where you are doing your marketing as to where you put the emphasis. In spite of what mascamps claims, as far as 'users' are concerned (outside China) it makes no difference where the domain is hosted. In fact the search engine will not neccessarily know where the host is located, in the case of 1and1 they will have been given a block of IP addresses which they can use on any server anywhere in the world & no-one outside of 1and1 will necessarily know where thay have been allocated. It would need a very detailed & expert analysis of his logs to know where mascamps extra visitors came from but it certainly wasn't because the domain physically moved from the US to the UK. If you would like to have a look at the stats of a low traffic site goto to http://www.smhc.org.uk/stats/ click on one of the months & the important information is under Referrers. I hope this helps & let me know if you would like any of this expanded upon. Regards Nick Thompson

[quote user="mascamps.com"] The absolutely vital point that nobody else has picked up is that your site is hosted in America. This of itself is reducing the hits (and thereby direct bookings) by around 90%. [/quote] That is absolute rubbish. Care to answer my reply to that on another forum. Regards Nick Thompson