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We are moving into our new home in the Limousin hopefully in the new year and I want to be as prepared as I can be about having internet access (have teenagers & work from home!) Where do I begin to find out if my village has high speed internet and which companies offer the best deals with help when I need it?

Would I also be able to set it up before I move in so that is ready & waiting for me??

Any suggestions would be great.  Thanks.

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I started by reading a lot of the posts on here. There is a lot of good information. One person (sorry cant remember who it was) recommended the website www.dslvalley.com and on that you can test whether or not your area has ADSL (Broadband) capability and what speed is available. If you have a phone number (France Telecom) then you can use that to find out. If not try a naeighbour's number. Depends a bit on how remote you are.

I personally went for FT and the Orange Livebox. I think it was Will who said that FT/Livebox is a little bit more but they are all same company and therefore anything goes wrong with phone or Internet then they cant blame a third party.

From my original phone call to FT to having phone and Internet installed took me 10 days. I was 2 days getting the Internet phone to work but now its is fine. I even have 8mb connection - faster than I have in UK!

You will find lots of recommendations on here - some hate Livebox some love it, others go for Neuf, Free or Alice etc. It is obviously up to you but I would spend a good evening reading through this section.

Whatever you choose good luck.

 

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You need a phone number to fully check, if no number then go onto the pagesjaunes white pages section and enter the address of your property
(http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/trouverunnom/RecherchePagesBlanches.do),
or the hamlet and use a neighbours number to find out if you can get ADSL, try the link mentioned or http://www.degrouptest.com/

plus you can get an aerial view of your property

 

Lee

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I've said this in another thread which I can't find it right now but if you don't have a phone number for the actual property be cautious about judging what speed you might get by seeing what neighbours have as cable routes can be very different even for adjoining properties.

My near neighbour who is maybe 300m physically closer to the village then me struggles for 512 whereas I have a solid 2mb.

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[quote user="ErnieY"]

I've said this in another thread which I can't find it right now but if you don't have a phone number for the actual property be cautious about judging what speed you might get by seeing what neighbours have as cable routes can be very different even for adjoining properties.

[/quote]

At least its a start

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I personally went for FT and the Orange Livebox. I think it was Will

who said that FT/Livebox is a little bit more but they are all same

company and therefore anything goes wrong with phone or Internet then

they cant blame a third party.

------------------

I wish! They just pretend not to have anything to do with each other, give contradictory advice... The good thing is that you can go to your FT boutique and pick up your replacement gear by hand. I like that part.

As for speeds etc, the closer you are to the exchange the faster your speed, or so I'm told.

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[quote user="Bones"]
As for speeds etc, the closer you are to the exchange the faster your speed, or so I'm told.
[/quote]

Quite correct.  The speed you get is related to the attenuation (how much signal is lost)  There is a theoretical limit of around 7Kms from an exchange for ADSL but this is for a perfect line.  In practice, 5Kms is the limit.  At just under 5kms from an exchange, the best I can get at the moment is 400Kbs and no choice of provider - SFR or nothing!

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[quote user="ChezShells"]

At least its a start

[/quote]Absolutely, just making folks aware that it's not always as simple as you might think or hope.

[quote user="caramac"] Grrrr    [;-)][/quote]

Do I take this to mean you have something slightly less then....[Www]

Not saying this is your case but I wonder how many people have bought a property only to find out belatedly that BB availability is either pathetic or worse, non existent, and dial up the only option ?

When we were house hunting the very first thing we did was get the Immo to check a potential property out on degrouptest and anything which came back at under 2mb was instantly rejected.

 

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Try and find out from the Immo the name of the previous residents then look them up in the local PagesJaunes, it shouldn't be difficult.

Failing that try asking any near neighbours if they know who used to live there, they may even have the number.

Not an accurate indicator but how far is the house from the nearest village ?

Get the telephone number of a business and check it out on www.degrouptest.com to at least see if the village is BB enabled, most are by now I think.

Don't quote me on any of this but I read somewhere once that on the offchance that the line is still live you can plug a telephone in and dial a special number to find out what the old number was but I don't know what that number is, 1234 seems to come to mind but could be completely wrong !

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