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Fibre Optic connection to house


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Thank you both very much.

The Forfait Free offered on my phone says "For (my name), le Forfait Free à 9.99€/mois pendant 1 an puis 19.99€/mois, avec 210/moisen 5G/4G. Sans engagement. 14 jours pour changer l'avis. En zones couvertes. Pour en bénéficier repondez "Oui" à ce SMS avant le 24/04/2022.

It doesn't correspond exactly with an offer on their web site, so I can't easily check the T's & C's.

When I check similar Free offers, on searching their FAQ's for "mode modem", I get a mass of results, looking through which I see instructions for "Partage de connection" using a phone as a hub, but otherwise they only seem to mention their own rented modems/routers in this context.

I think I will take the 9.99€ offer while I have the chance, buy the Huawei router, and try it out.

Anything to get away from the chaos that is Orange.

If it doesn't work or provide the expected speed I have 14 days to to return the router, and can buy a suitable smart phone to use as a hub. I realise the utility of this, but at 84 we don't travel much any longer, and our first need is a phone and internet connection in the house, so that we can continue to use the Gigaset system with 3 phones around the place rather than run around a large plain pied looking for a mobile.

I also have 14 days to change my mind about the Free offer.

 

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Looking at this:

https://freebox-news.com/tutoriel/cle-4g

 

it does look as though you should have no problem with using a Free SIM card in an independent 4G modem router.  

 

Much like our situation with SOSH a few years ago,   I was relying on the fact that if it failed to work I could cancel the SOSH contract within the cooling off period;   in fact ours was a "sans engagement" so it could have been cancelled any time.

 

I do hope you get it to work,   your situation sounds like a complete nightmare with regard to the phone line,   and we had absolutely no problems using 4G to replace our truly terrible 500 kbps ADSL service,   the improvement was truly transformational,   and we in fact ditched the landline entirely once we were certain it would be OK to do so.

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Thank you for the reassurance.

I have just accepted the Free offer, and ordered the router, which I should have by Monday.

Looking forward to ditching Orange for good.

They have cost me a lot of aggro and time, the final insult was 9€35 to return their Fibre Livebox.

I will report on the result of the installation.

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Bon courage,   and keep us posted.   And don't worry if you have initial trouble getting the card to talk to the router,   it probably won't happen in your case but occasionally something called the APN needs tweaking,   but it's easy to do.

And mostly it just sorts itself out.

I can certainly vividly remember the moment of joy when - even with only 3G - our router came to life and knocked spots off the Orange landline.   And then only days later 4G was fired up at our transmitter and things really took off.    Seemed unbelievable to me that the "internet" could come to us without a wire!

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I'm actually quite happy using the PC I built in 2015 with a processor which was even then a bit old, as all we really need is to send and receive a few emails, keep an eye on the banks, and other mundane stuff.

Most of what is on offer is overkill and over priced for our needs.

The best leap forward ever for us is still the fax machine. I paid about £1,000 for our first one, which was a lot in the early 1980's, but it transformed our business.

Previously we had sent telex messages from the main Post office in Palma. A painful and expensive process, with the operator bashing the keys with one finger while he struggled with the English text of our messages.

Even this was faster then the telephone had recently been, before STD was introduced - but from the capital only.

 

 

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Yes, do keep us posted.  We have had terrible problems with SFR, who I lump in with Orange for service.  Have been with Free for several years now and have been happy with their service.  Our fibre has stopped working twice in the last 2 years.  They have diagnosed the problem remotely, without the need to talk to anyone.  RDV the next day arranged on the phone on line/text.  Technician arrived within the window.  Both times  the problem has been caused by other installers disturbing the fibre connection lines on the main board 2km from our flat (Probably Orange or SFR ;)!).  All sorted in short order.

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15 hours ago, ssomon said:

The best leap forward ever for us is still the fax machine. I paid about £1,000 for our first one, which was a lot in the early 1980's, but it transformed our business.

Previously we had sent telex messages from the main Post office in Palma. A painful and expensive process, with the operator bashing the keys with one finger while he struggled with the English text of our messages.

Even this was faster then the telephone had recently been, before STD was introduced - but from the capital only.

 

Nice to hear those memories.     My parents had a chalet in Hautes Alpes in the 1970s,   and back then we used to occasionally need to phone my grandmother in Britain.   This involved going up to the local village Post Office,    requesting a line,   then going off and doing something else for half an hour,   then going back,   and entering a wooden cabinet where the line would be put through,   if the wind was blowing the right way.    I seem to remember even managing it on Christmas Day,   but I'm not sure if my memory is playing tricks and the PO would have been shut on that day....

 

Eventually a proper telephone exchange was installed,   and we had a phone on which you could actually dial automatically and internationally.     You still had to remember to use 16 to get outside Hautes Alpes,   and 19 to get outside France,   and something else I seem to recall that applied just to calls to IDF.....?

 

How thing have come on.   I remember fax machines at £999,    but they were indeed extraordinarily useful,   particularly when dealing with such matters as Probate.

 

Years later my parents ended up living in Portugal,   where a new challenge presented itself to my by then partially disabled mother.    If you went to the PO to buy stamps you had to deal with a very disagreeable Portuguese lady who was universally known as Miss Piggy.    The stamps were not blessed with the sort of adhesive that one activated by licking,   but the PO had helpfully provided a pot of glue and a small paint brush on a separate counter.    Many were the times that my poor mother,  by this time in tears,    managed to glue her letters,   the stamps,  and herself to the counter,   where she would be rescued - with much cursing and bad grace - by a scowling Miss Piggy

15 hours ago, ssomon said:

 

 

 

Edited by Martin963
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I well remember those cabinets in French Post Offices where one could make a call - after waiting while the operators made the appropriate connections. I used to play with the Minitel, looking for old penfriend's numbers while I waited.

We had many telephone adventures over the years.

In the 1960's I was a Shell country rep in a small town in W.Australia. Our phone had a wooden box under my desk, containing its batteries, which I think supplied only the bell. When I had a call the operator used to ring to say she was going to connect me. Occasionally I would be puzzled about the lack of people calling, until someone from the phone company came round to tell me I had kicked the box and disconnected the battery.

The late 60's found us in Teheran, where the telephone system was as good as that in the UK at the time. But there was a small problem due to the telephone sockets being identical to the 220 volt sockets in many houses. Everyone had to be told that if their phone started ringing immediately it was plugged in, they should quickly unplug it, and on no account pick it up. Doing so would cause the handset microphones to explode, not nice if you had managed to get the thing to your ear.

We were in Algeria for a couple of years from 1969, and waited some weeks for a telephone to be installed. They eventually turned up to do this just as we were sitting down to Christmas dinner with visiting relations, who were most entertained by the procedure. We didn't dare tell them to come later, as there was no telling how long we would have to wait for another rdv.

To make a call I had to wind a handle and tell the operator "Bonjour, c'est le 158 à Bouisseville" and ask her for the number I wanted. She would reply "Bonjour Mr *****" , as there were only a few dozen phones actually in use, and she knew most of the subscribers. If I wanted an overseas call she would call me back when the connection was made.

I just received a text and an email from Free, confirming of my 5G "migration" together with the T&C's and a tariff brochure, and have ordered a new nano SIM card from my Espace abonné, as my current phone's SIM is too big for the router.

A big improvement already on Orange, who, after I agreed to a new fibre contract, emailed me an outdated contract and the wrong charges. When I went back to their meeting at Mairie where I had made the contract I was told curtly that I would get the correct paperwork after a couple of weeks. That was on March 16, and I never got the line, let alone the paperwork.

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Some lovely memories there.     Telephones were much more amusing when they had wires!

Not long (I suspect) after the war,   my grandmother wanted to have a bed-time chat with her cousin on the telephone,   and picked up the receiver to ask the operator to give her the connection.    While this was happening,   her cat jumped on the bed and walked over to her.   My grandmother said to the cat,   (as one does),   "Have you got a nice cold wet nosey?".      The operator,   without batting an eyelid,   replied "I'm not entirely sure Madam,   I'll feel it and tell you".

My grandmother was also a great slammer-down-of-the-receiver to relatives when family conversations didn't go her way.   On one occasion she slammed it down with such force that the entire telephone (bakelite back then) disintegrated.   There was much quiet amusement amongst the family when it turned out the GPO had billed her for a new instrument,  and the cost of the visit to install it.

Seems amazing that up until 1979 all domestic phones were hard wired,   and you actually had to rent (rather than own) an answering machine from an approved supplier.   Still I suppose the fact they were hard wired meant that no clown could put a 13 A plug on them and do what was done in that story from Iran.....

 

Edited by Martin963
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To be (half) fair to Iran, the telephone sockets had a small phone symbol on them, but this had often been painted over.

Thinking about my plans over the weekend I realised that i will lose my regular email addresses, which are all Orange, when I cancel my current contract. I have resurrected a gmail address I used years ago, but will have to make sure I inform all my contacts, and put the new address on dozens of online accounts.

Also with my now 5G mobile SIM card in the router, my mobile number will become our home number, so I will also have to check and inform everyone who has our fixed number, about to be lost, of the "new" home number.

I bet there are some entities with software which won't accept what appears top be a mobile number as a fixed one. There is definitely software which does the opposite.

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We have a not dissimilar problem here in Devon where our STD number only has ( in addition to the code) five (rather than the usual six) digits;   (ie 01*** ***** rather than 01*** ******)    There are countless websites that won't accept our number unless I stick an extra random digit on the end,   which in practice makes no difference when you dial us.

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Don't get me going on computer bods designing any database or data collection module.  Long ago, now, I was in a team creating our first library database (on the users side ie librarian).  The systems analyst said - we'll made the title the ID - to which comment were shouted from all directions - "NO!".  It didn't take long to show him why not - even in a technical library.  We were surrounded by examples.
 

Or filling out forms which cannot understand that not everyone has a mobile phone!!

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Many years ago, when computers were coming into commercial use, I was involved in introducing an developing a planned maintenance system for the company I was with. We had operations in several countries, each of which had their own warehouse, so there was always a possibility that someone could be in desperate need of a spare part which was unavailable immediately, but might be sitting happily on a shelf in another operation's warehouse.

After the first step, sharing warehouse stock lists, was made, it became clear that there could be many different descriptions for the same item. Someone in the head office decided we needed an list of standard names, each standard name showing all the possible common names to be replaced by this one. A consultant was hired to produce this.

I began to receive pages of parts lists, suggestions for standard name structures, and definitions, asking for my ideas and comments. The scope of the project was mind blowing.

Two years later the idea was abandoned, as he only got about as far as the letter "D".

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ssomon,  that really doesn't surprise me.  Nameing is a big bear even in the best regulated systems.  That's why free text searching is so inaccurate, and why keyword searching was invented by librarians as at least one of the better alternatives, long ago.  And even then, working out alternative names was scary!

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The new Free Mobile nano SIM card, replacing the big one in my old Nokia dumb phone, arrived a couple of days ago, and the Huawei router on Thursday (28 April), so I got started on the setting up late yesterday.

First, I moved all the contacts in both my and my wife's phones onto the phone rather than the SIM cards, then put my wife's card into my phone, and registered its number with various entities, so I would still be in touch with them during the changeover.

Today I put the new nano SIM into the new router, and activated it on the Free website, but had a couple of problems before it worked, as the router showed no signal received.

I moved the router into the grenier, but it still had no signal, although my old laptop connected to its WiFi.

First, I found the SIM card was not seated properly. My fingers being a bit fat, I had to pull it out with tweezers and reinsert it.

The router still did not connect to the Internet, which I eventually found was because Free mobile had not disabled the old SIM card, which still worked in the old phone, but after an hour or two the router connected and all its little lights came on, showing a strong G4 signal.

I then waded through the procedure and passwords to connect everything, and finally got it right after a few tries, all this using my laptop to connect to the router via WiFi.

I plugged the house Gigaset phone system into the router, called my previous mobile number from another phone; the house phone rang and connected perfectly.

I then connected the PC with an Ethernet cable, and it immediately connected to the Internet.

My previous speed, checked by Ookla on the laptop and the PC, using the Orange Livebox, was around 8 Mb/sec up, 0.85 down. Still using Ookla, I now have 28-44 up, 3-4.5 down, probably varying with local traffic.

I am quite happy with that, especially as I am now paying 9€99 per month, rising to 19€99 after a year, instead of 45€99/month with Orange for a very slow ADSL service, or 49€99 for the fibre connection which they contracted for but failed to provide.

Tomorrow I have to change the Orange email addresses and "fixed" phone number for all my contacts to my gmail address and what was my mobile number. What fun.

I have ordered a new Free Mobile SIM for my wife's phone so that we will still be able to find each other when wandering in supermarkets, or on holiday in sunny Spain.

 

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Excellent ssomon.   I'm so glad it's worked out for you,   after the initial faffing about.    We found that moving from landline ADSL at 0.5 Mbps (I'd have killed for your 8 Mbps) to 30 Mbps via 4G was a transformation,    and more than enough unless one is addicted to the internet.

Although we sold up three years ago (a few years prior to that I had been refused residence in France,   one of the unlucky ones when Sarkozy tightened up the rules and bashed those of us with pre-existing medical conditions) I retain a couple of 4G British contracts as back up if our (excellent) fibre goes down here.

 

So glad you're now up and running.

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On 30/04/2022 at 20:52, ssomon said:

Tomorrow I have to change the Orange email addresses and "fixed" phone number for all my contacts to my gmail address and what was my mobile number. What fun.

 

Yes, what fun, and I'm still at it. The Huawei modem router is performing well, but I'm keeping the Orange Livebox for a while to enable us to receive calls to our land line from anyone to whom we missed giving the new number.

I bought a SIMPLE TELEPHONE to use while we still have two numbers functioning. I intended to keep it as an emergency spare in case our 3-unit Gigaset ever gives up, but it doesn't work properly from the telephone socket on the Huawei router, so wouldn't be much use for that.

It works perfectly on the Orange Livebox, but on the new router it sends and receives calls, but doesn't ring for incoming calls. It has a little light on the top of the handset, which flashes weakly, and I can hear a very faint ring with my ear a few inches from it, but it is really quite useless. It seems as if the router cannot provide enough power to ring properly.

I presume the Livebox has a more powerful ring signal, and the Gigaset somehow boosts the weak signal from the new router, as it has its own mains power supply.

Before I return the phone to Amazon, I wonder if anyone here can offer a solution?

Or maybe let me know what sort of phone you use on a Huawei or similar modem router?

 

 

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Great following your setting up.  Do you know that you can import incoming emails to Gmail from you other Orange accounts, just in case you miss updating any?  If you use the "settings" then import accounts its easy to set up.

I do not use a 4g router, but looking on the internet, in the UK they seem to use a "Ring Capacitor" for older phone  that do not ring when connected to a 4g set up.  Might be worth looking into.

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Thank you for the hints, Lehaut.

I was mistaken in saying that the Alcatel phone rings correctly when connected via the Orange Livebox - it doesn't, the ring is very slightly louder than on the Huawei router, but is still hardly audible, and too quiet to be of any use.

WRT importing incoming mails to gmail, I can't see this option in gmail Settings, but I'm using Thunderbird to import all my messages from both gmail and Orange, so already have them all in the same place.

In any case, i understand that Orange will delete all my email addresses with them as soon as I cancel my contract.

I'm searching for ideas on the Alcatel phone not ringing, so maybe I'll find a solution before I decide to return it.

 

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"In any case, i understand that Orange will delete all my email addresses with them as soon as I cancel my contract."

Connectez-vous à votre boite mail Orange dans les 6 mois suivant la résiliation, avec votre identifiant et votre mot de passe ; Paramétrez la redirection automatique de vos mails en allant dans la rubrique « Mes préférences« , « Mes mails » ; Cliquez sur « Transférer mes mails vers une autre boîte«

You have 6 mths before they cancel the address.  I am still getting emails (mostly spam) from a neuf email address.  I cancelled the contract with them 10 years ago!

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56 minutes ago, Martin963 said:

So - if I understand you correctly - you're now saying that a phone plugged into the Bouygyes 4G router DOES allow you to make calls.....?

Sorry - forget that post.   Total nonsense on my part.

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Martin, I saw your latest post just in time to stop me replying to the previous one ?

The search results I found referred mainly to adapters to connect phones with various other connectors to RJ11 sockets. I didn't find anything addressing the problem I have, so have returned the phone. Now looking for a reasonably priced one similar to the Gigaset.

 

41 minutes ago, Lehaut said:

"In any case, i understand that Orange will delete all my email addresses with them as soon as I cancel my contract."

Connectez-vous à votre boite mail Orange dans les 6 mois suivant la résiliation, avec votre identifiant et votre mot de passe ; Paramétrez la redirection automatique de vos mails en allant dans la rubrique « Mes préférences« , « Mes mails » ; Cliquez sur « Transférer mes mails vers une autre boîte«

You have 6 mths before they cancel the address.  I am still getting emails (mostly spam) from a neuf email address.  I cancelled the contract with them 10 years ago!

Thank you, I had a vague memory of addresses being maintained when I cancelled with SFR in 2012.

However, I no longer have much confidence in Orange after recent experiences with the unreliability of information I received from them in person and on line, so I'm trying not to rely too much on what they tell me.

At the moment my email client collects mail separately from each provider, so I can easily spot anyone still using an old address. After a couple of months I'll set up forwarding just as a backup.

 

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I returned the Alcatel phone to Amazon and bought a reconditioned 2-phone Gigaset from them for €24.

It works perfectly, so I now have phones connected both to the land line via the Orange Livebox and the new line via the 4G router.

I'll probably leave them like that for a couple of weeks until I'm reasonably sure everyone important has the new number.

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