Maggie

This may not help at all but we have a Netgear WiFi adapter used in conjunction with an Alice box. I seem to remember that, when trying to set it up, we were prompted to choose between allowing Windows (XP) to make the 'connection' or the (recommended) option of allowing the Netgear adaptor do it. Using the Netgear option, it was impossible to connect. As soon as we chose the Windows option it connected straight away and has worked perfectly ever since.

[quote user="Scooby"][quote user="Boiling a frog"]What a load of total misinformation. [/quote] Sorry but the facts are correct and I stand by them - and can provide names etc by pm if anyone wants them.  Maybe the rules have changed because both my B-i-L and my close friend retired 15 years ago and both drew their pensions immediately.  Both entered the police force age 18 - as did my friends husband.  Even if the rules have changed, 2/3 of your salary as a pension after only 25 years is a huge amout more than most people on a 40/80ths scheme get - especially when you consider it's paid from a much earlier age.  The point I'm making is that a lot of the 'inactifs' I'm sure, will have similar backgrounds, early retirement from comfortable government jobs on a nice big pension (compared to the income of many French), with plenty of proceeds from the sale of a house in the UK - if not a lump sum invested the enough to be mortgage free.  Its not suprised the French feel agrieved.  No 'inactif' is without healthcare - as groslard said already -  you just have to move back to the UK.  [/quote] To qualify for a 2/3rd's police pension you have to pay in for 30 years. When I retired from the police, 10 years ago, aged 49, I was contributing 11% of my salary - maybe it's more now.. You cannot retire with less than 25 years service (except on grounds of ill-health) and if you do go at 25 years you will receive 1/2 of your final salary but this is NOT payable immediately. Both amounts are obviously reduced if the retiree chooses to take a lump sum - most do. Before I joined the police, I was aware of the pension arrangements as they stood, what I would pay in and what I would receive. If I have a 'nice big pension' it's because I paid for it and I will be quite willing to explain to any 'agrieved' French person - and any envious British person - what I had to do, and what I had to pay, in order to receive it.

We've been with Tiscali (Alice) for about 3 years and have had (virtually) trouble-free service throughout that time. The only problems that we've had have been the loss of the VOIP facility for a few hours very occasionally. We retain our FT line so even on the very few occasions when the VOIP has been out there's been no real problem. All local, national and international (to the countries we dial anyway) calls to landlines made through the 'Alice box' are included in the 29.95 monthly rental. We pay only for calls to mobiles and 'special rate' numbers.  The 'Alice box' was provided completely free of charge, with no monthly rental fee. We haved moved house twice in this period and the last time (August 2007) there was no charge for transferring the service and the new connection came online within a few days. Whilst there will undoubtedly be people with bad experiences of Tiscali, we have found them very reliable and our current location provides a 6Mbit (tested) connection speed, which I think is reasonably good. We've certainly had no reason to look elsewhere.

We had a very similar problem with our Grundig Sky Digibox. About a year ago, Channel 5 suddenly 'disappeared' reporting 'no satellite signal being received'. All other channels OK. A couple of months ago, BBC2 became intermittent and eventually also permanently reported 'no satellite signal being received'. Gradually, other channels, ITV3, BBC News 24, were similarly affected - all reporting 'no satellite signal being received' while others, BBC1, ITV1 worked perfectly well. In addition to the Sky box, we also have a Free-to-Air box. When this was connected, in place of the Sky box, everything worked fine (for those channels that were able to be received FTA, e.g. BBC2, News 24. After much 'fiddling about' we sought advice and were told that the 'old' Grundig Digibox had a very weak power supply system (whatever that means!!) and, if we replaced it (the power supply), it should do the trick. Less than totally confident, we sent the box away to a local specialist who replaced the power supply (total cost, including return postage, 80 Euros). The repaired box works perfectly and all channels, including Channel 5, are now available without any problem at all. In our case, at least, 'replacing' the power supply was the complete and instant solution. Depends, I suppose, whether you too have the 'old' Grundig box. Hope this helps anyway.