beginners guide to internet connection please

[jen]

As we're going to spend alot more time in France this year we want to get internet connected to be able to use skype to chat with kids. We're with france telecom secondaire ligne and have been on their site to check our phone number is possible to with internet and its showing - Orange TV via ADSL with satellite . The best option their site is showing us is 21euro a month.

Can anyone advise - how easy it is to start and cancel this service.

How easy it is to get connected and what sort of router do we need - total beginners here so please would appreciate really basic details.

Many thanks

[powerdesal]

I have just had a brief look and could not see a E21 per month service.

We have Internet + phone by internet and it costs E40.01 per month.

It means using the Orange Livebox (in our case) but it does give us WiFi and we can use Skype as and when, or free internet phone calls. The downside is the variable reliability of the Orange system. eg, we have had 3 liveboxes in the last two years and, in same period some 5 ADSL filters, the last of these was replaced yesterday after the internet failed.

I can't figure out why filters keep failing, Orange don't seem to have an answer either. Its not as though the system is used all year as we are not full time residents.

The English speaking helpline staff are very helpful. 09 69 36 39 00 is the phone number.

[Danny]

Jen,

here is the Orange service.

http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/forfaits/decouverte.aspx

YOu can use your own compatible ADSL modem/router. like this maybe

You need to cancel in writing - it will stop 10 days after Orange receive the letter.

more info here in this discussion

http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewtopic.php?t=100297

Danny

[Martin963]

The "decouverte" option doesn't always show up for some reason.    We finally went on it a week ago,  but this time last year when we were investigating it only the Orange shop in Perigueux could activate it,  the on-line activation only showed much more expensive (and for us with a slow debit,  wholly inappropriate) options.

That is indeed odd about your filters.   The filter - I think I'm right in thinking - is for the benefit of the telephone part of the system,  not the ADSL.   It filters (surprise surprise!) the high frequency components that are present for ADSL (ie roughly 400 - 1100 kHz,  although that's from memory) from your telephone,   but your router connection is unfiltered.   So - in theory - if you unplugged all your phones and filters the internet should still work if you made a direct connection from your router to the line.   Might be worth checking next time it happens....?

I stand ready for correction on that if someone is so minded.

Incidentally,  so far so good with Decouverte.   It actually runs a little faster than Alice did (*),   the voice quality of Alice's VOIP ranged from barely acceptable to unusable (whereas Skype is quasi-hi-fi,  including when one is using the internet at the same time),  and we're paying a lot less.   

(*)  The Orange shop said that this was the case,   but at the time I didn't believe them.   The saleswoman said that FT were better able to optimise the line performance on their own ADSL accounts.

[powerdesal]

Martin,

Interesting thought but.... when the net goes down the internet incoming light, normally green (the @ light) flashes red.

The phone is plugged into the live box.

The live box is plugged into the RJ socket in the filter. Are you suggesting that the live box can be plugged directly into the telephone wall socket, if so - how?

[AnOther]

If you follow Danny's link you'll see that the cancelling he mentions is exactly that, not just a suspension for the periods you don't need it. I suspect that is what you are ideally looking for (along with many others) but unfortunately I don't know of any ISP who offers that option.

Martin, when Teleconnect (spit) screwed me and FT's database (via Degrouptest) downgraded me from a perfect 2mb to 512kb max, surprise surprise when I contacted Orange to switch to them magically they could immediately give me 1mb.

This is just a disingenuous business practice, a line is a line is a line and if Orange can provide 1mb then there is no technical reason another ISP could not do likewise but they cannot override FT's flaky database as FT themselves can.

[Martin963]

So have you still got the "old fashioned" analogue FT phone line as well as the phone plugged into the Livebox?

Either way though,   our original Club Internet box came with a cable with an FT plug on one end and the little BT type (but much smaller) modem plug on the other.    The FT plug end was UNFILTERED,   it had also an integrated socket so that you could daisy chain something else on top of it,  but they'd deliberately stuck a label over the socket saying "DO NOT REMOVE" because their policy was that it was better not to have any filter between line and modem and also not to plug anything else into the FT socket into which the modem was plugged.

Now how easy it is to get one of those unfiltered FT plugs I don't know,   but you could perfectly well make one by buying a lead with the modem type plugs on either end,  cut one off,  and wire the two wires to pins one and three of an FT plug bought in a shop.

I wish I could remember the correct technical name for the modem type plug,  it's the same sort used on modern telephones to connect them to the wall.   I think it used to be called an American type telephone plug,   but it's got an RJ or similar description.

Laters - I think it's an RJ10.    For the sake of a couple of €s it might be worth trying.   I know filters *can* go wrong,   but what's happening to you sounds odd to say the least.

[powerdesal]

I think RJ45 (?????) is the plug designation, but anyway I get the point, I may well try that, I'm sure I have a lead somewhere that I can cannibalise.

edit, It may well be a different RJ number.

I probably have all the bits. Mind you, if it works it doesn't explain the apparent filter failures. Could it be the type of phone??????

[Martin963]

FWIW I've just located in my "stores" a 

<<Fiche Male avec sortie sur microfiche>>

still in its package,  probably bought at Carrefour or Leclerc.   It's well pre-ADSL days,  and is simply an FT plug with the RJ socket on the bottom face,  so that one could use an RJ - RJ lead to connect a "modern" phone.    

For the record it seems to think the necessary lead is an RJ11   (!).

But - as you say - you've got the idea.    Can't do much harm to try.

[powerdesal]

As you say, I'll get round to it when the bathroom is finished !!!!

The net (+phone) have been off and back 3 times today so far, all I have done is wait and it eventually comes back - Orange reliability rules OK (NOT)

[AnOther]

Don't know why your filters have suffered so many failures, there is precious little to them:

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/telecom/adsl_filter.html

[powerdesal]

I cant argue with that, the only time the helpline suggested a filter change was as a last resort because '''the live box was not synchronising''' ... make of that comment what you will, suffice to say a filter change worked and we got internet back.

All this electronic wizardry is a bit beyond a simple desalination & power construction engineer.

[DavyH]

[quote user="Jane and Danny"]Jen,

here is the Orange service.

http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/forfaits/decouverte.aspx

YOu can use your own compatible ADSL modem/router. like this maybe

You need to cancel in writing - it will stop 10 days after Orange receive the letter.

more info here in this discussion

http://www.totalfrance.com/france/forum/viewtopic.php?t=100297

Danny

[/quote]

I am looking to restart the decouverte option after a year of being able to "suspend and unsuspend" the service.  I've now got my own router and modem having had to return my livebox.  Once I put in my phone nuumber to see what internet is available, the cheapest option I am offered is on at €28 per month.

If you look at the details of the €21 option, it appears that the offer ended on 13 April.  Any ideas how to get this service as I cannot do it on-line?

[suein56]

[quote user="DavyH"] If you look at the details of the €21 option, it appears that the offer ended on 13 April.  Any ideas how to get this service as I cannot do it on-line? [/quote]

Test again:

Try this.

Sue

[Martin963]

.....  you probably already have noticed this,  but one of the "tricks" they use on the website is only to show you three of the available options initially;  you have to click on a button to show "all options".   Funny how the options they show you are the most expensive ones too.

We signed up for Decouverte after 13th April,  although we'd tested the line before that date to ensure it was available.

If all else fails,  go and talk to the local Orange shop.

[Danny]

[quote user="DavyH"]Any ideas how to get this service as I cannot do it on-line?

[/quote]

It is still available.

If it does not show for you even under 'other offres'

or by using this page

http://abonnez-vous.orange.fr/residentiel/forfaits/decouverte.aspx?idnode=110414005

then you will need to call up to order

3900 in France

Or if you want to do it in English, the English speaking helpline from within France is  0969 36 39 00, from outside France call 0033 969 36 39 00

or or go into an Orange shop.

Danny

[DavyH]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'm going to have to phone as using the link that Jane and Danny provided, I am informed that I am not compatible for the €21/month offer!

Sue's link only gave me the option on a minimum of €28.90.  I appreciate the options with FT/Orange for stopping/starting the phone and internet, but why once they give these options do they make it so difficult?

[Martin963]

This time last year when the Decouverte option failed to show on the internet site for our number I ended up trying various other numbers and addresses in the village (something no doubt one can be executed for!)   Anyway,  it turned out that for some reason the "system" had a distance cap of some sort on it,   and we were further out than the system thought was acceptable  (we're 6.5 kms from the exchange).     Other numbers only 500 m nearer were offered Decouverte.   Which is why I went and asked in the Orange shop,  and although back then we took it no further they could have set it up for us.

At least,  so they said.....

[powerdesal]

The saga continues.......

The net has been off three times today so far, the first two times I waited and it eventually came back.

This last time, after about an hour I decided to change the filter (for a previous 'failed' one) and lo and behold, after a couple of minutes I have internet again - weird or what !!!!!