ADSL

[Matchless]

OK! Let's cut to the chase. It's been a long time since I made a posting but here it is.

I am about to get, I hope, ADSL here in the depths of Limousin. I need to keep my connection as long as possible without losing it for days or weeks on end when changing from dial-up to ADSL. Having read many of the threads in this forum it appears that there are problems with Orange/Wanadoo/France Telecom, especially with their Live Boxes.

Can anyone give their opinion as to which is the best ISP to go with. I am with AOL France dial-up at present but do not necessarily want to go use  them  as my ADSL provider. My requirements are a good speed; I am 3.9 km. from the distribution point, a reasonable price, it appears that a lot of providers are charging 29.99euros/month, and hopefully one that includes free calls to France and U.K. Also, it is imperative that I have a reliable service/router because I don't use the internet for fun. (Sorry if that sounds bigoted, not meant to be).

The final question is, can I still use my four cordless phones from around the house ( they work O.K. through 50cm. thick stone walls) or do I have to buy a special phone, and, do phone calls go through the computer, i.e. only when swiched on, or do they go straight through the router and/filter?

I know that there may be many and varied opinions but if I can get a general concensus it will be good.

Thanks to all in anticipation.

Peter.  

[Cassis]

Hello Peter

I suspect you've not had a reply because this info is already out there - in any case, you've probably read everybody's opinions already.

My reading of it is:

Various people recommend Club Internet, Free, Neuf, Alice.

Nobody has used all of them so people can only comment on one or two at most.

All of those mentioned are in the price range you mention and provide free France and UK calls in a package costing about 30 to 35 euros per month.

There is no such thing as a guaranteed reliable service.

Your base station with cordless phones, if they work on an FT line, will also work through your chosen ISP's modem.

If connected through the modem, you do not need to have your computer switched on for the phone to work, but if for any reason the modem is down - failure in electricity supply or problem with your Internet connection - you will lose telephony through the modem connection.  It is at times like this that you wish you still had an FT line if you went for degroupage.

[Bob T]

I have wanadoo as my ISP. I get a 1 meg ADSL as I am 5.6 km from the exchange and pay 24.99 € per month. I have a Netgear 834 modem router with three PCs on it, one hard wired and two wireless. I also have a couple of Dect cordless phones around the house and they have no effect on the ADSL at all. The ADSL is allways on and the phones work as normal. I also use skype on the PCs for free calls to other skype users all over the world and free calls to French landlines (this is supposedly only till the end of the year).

[BJSLIV]

I think that all the suppliers area as good or as bad as each other. They are fine when they work, but if you encounter problems customer service is uniformly dreadful.

Your main problem won't be moving from dial-up to ADSL, your existing supplier, or your new supplier will give you access until the ADSL box lights up. If you go with a new supplier you may end up paying for two services at once due to the vagaries of the cancelling of French Internet contracts. We chose Neuf, and they gave us free dial-up until the box came alive.

You can plug your existing cordless base into the ADSL router and your existing phones will work as at present. Be aware that the quality is sometimes not as good as the old FT service. If you opt for a package, such as Club Internet or Neuf, where you no longer pay FT rental, all your calls will come via the ADSL box so during a power cut you won't have a phone service.

The biggest risk is if you ever decide to change ADSL supplier. There have been reports of people being without phone or ADSL for up to a month. It can be hard to transfer your number from one ADSL supplier to another so you might acquire a new number in the transfer process.

[Cassis]

Hello Peter

I suspect you've not had a reply

because this info is already out there - in any case, you've probably

read everybody's opinions already.

My reading of it is:

Various people recommend Club Internet, Free, Neuf, Alice.

Nobody has used all of them so people can only comment on one or two at most.

All

of those mentioned are in the price range you mention and provide free

France and UK calls in a package costing about 30 to 35 euros per month.

There is no such thing as a guaranteed reliable service.

Your base station with cordless phones, if they work on an FT line, will also work through your chosen ISP's modem.

If

connected through the modem, you do not need to have your computer

switched on for the phone to work, but if for any reason the modem is

down - failure in electricity supply or problem with your Internet

connection - you will lose telephony through the modem connection.  It

is at times like this that you wish you still had an FT line if you

went for degroupage.

[Matchless]

Thanks to all who have replied. You comments have been helpful. Regarding dégroupage, I didn't think Free and Neuf were dégroupage. I think I would rather keep my FT line because we have quite a few power cuts in Haute-Vienne albeit not for long, normally.

Going back to FT, do you think there service is OK if I buy a separate router or do they insist on renting their Livebox?

Does anyone use AOL broadband?

If there is more info I would be most grateful.

Thankyou all once again.

Peter.

[Cassis]

From what I've read on this forum you can buy your own router and ditch the Livebox.  In fact some recommend doing just that.

[Bob T]

If you are thinking of buying a router, I can reccomend a Netgear 834 from www.cdiscount.com. It is easy to set up and is also WiFi should you need it. I have one and have fitted quite a few, all bought from cdiscount with no problems. You do not have to rent the livebox, you can ask for a €1 modem instead - better than €3 per month.

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Bob T"]If you are thinking of buying a router, I can reccomend a Netgear 834 from www.cdiscount.com. It is easy to set up and is also WiFi should you need it. I have one and have fitted quite a few, all bought from cdiscount with no problems. You do not have to rent the livebox, you can ask for a €1 modem instead - better than €3 per month.

[/quote]

With the Netgear 834 router is there a socket yo pull off the integrated phone service ? Or must one have the Livebox/Freebox etc. for this service ?

p

[Deimos]

If you are just startig on ADSL (i.e. do not currently have a subscription), then Wanadoo/Orange offer a USB ADSL modem for something like 1€ (http://nos-offres.orange.fr/no1161161284/ext/op3b-produit-packusb.html) and an ethernet for 30€ (http://nos-offres.orange.fr/no1161161284/ext/op3b-produit-packethernet.html) - sorry, but until Archant get round to supporting current versions of browsers you will have to cut and paste the links).

I got an Ethernet one and its actually a really good model (though must confess it was only 10€ when I got it). They provide different boxes at different times. However, both these are probably cheaper than you could buy in any shops and are only available when you first take out a subscription with Wanadoo. If you went to purchase a Netgear thing it would probably cost a bit more.

Orange tend to hide these offers a bit as they want their 3€ per month forever from you. If you do actually want a Livebox, then also consider buying one as they tend to be "on offer" a lot of the time and compared to 3€ per month for a 12 month contract buying outright might be cheaper (provided the box does not break too quickly).

I think that if you want the phone stuff from Orange you will need a Livebox. Never heard of anybody managing it without one.

Ian

[Deimos]

If you are just startig on ADSL (i.e. do not currently have a subscription), then Wanadoo/Orange offer a USB ADSL modem for something like 1€ (http://nos-offres.orange.fr/no1161161284/ext/op3b-produit-packusb.html) and an ethernet for 30€ (http://nos-offres.orange.fr/no1161161284/ext/op3b-produit-packethernet.html) - sorry, but until Archant get round to supporting current versions of browsers you will have to cut and paste the links).

I got an Ethernet one and its actually a really good model (though must confess it was only 10€ when I got it). They provide different boxes at different times. However, both these are probably cheaper than you could buy in any shops and are only available when you first take out a subscription with Wanadoo. If you went to purchase a Netgear thing it would probably cost a bit more.

Orange tend to hide these offers a bit as they want their 3€ per month forever from you. If you do actually want a Livebox, then also consider buying one as they tend to be "on offer" a lot of the time and compared to 3€ per month for a 12 month contract buying outright might be cheaper (provided the box does not break too quickly).

I think that if you want the phone stuff from Orange you will need a Livebox. Never heard of anybody managing it without one.

Ian