Broadband/Internet connection

[Dee&Tom]

Hi

Hope someone can help.  It appears that since paying for Wanadoo from February this year, having our livebox set up by a professional registered IT person, having the lines tested, putting a post on here, more calls than I dare to mention to Wanadoo's supposed helpline etc etc (have now cancelled our direct debit in frustration) WE ARE STILL NOT ONLINE!!! although of course have been paying for a service we have yet to get!  Apparently it has something to do with where our house is situated in our village and our  ie. half get dial up (we are in the dial up half) and half get broadband and the signal in our nearest town is just not reaching us.  

My question is which provider can we try now?  Does anyone have any recommendations?  Obviously we are going to have to go the dial up route - I just need to be able to get on the internet and send emails and upload photographs.  Any good suggestions?

PS. Our French is not great but have a fantastic French neighbour who is willing to help us

Thanks in advance

Dee&Tom  

[Deimos]

If the reason you are not getting ADSL is because you are too far from the exchange then its a line issue not a provider issue. If the line is slightly "marginal" you can often manage but at lower speeds. In general Orange/Wanadoo/FT tend to offer the widest range of speeds, other ISPs offering only e.g. 2MB upwards (though depends on area).

If ADSL does not reach you, none of the ISPs will be able to. ADSL from your house to the exchange is FT (whatever ISP) and its at the exchange that your ADSL line is patched through to your chosen ISP.

Ian

[Dee&Tom]

Thanks Ian

As we are complete techno-phobics (I am not quite sure what ADSL or ISPs is) I think I will pass this info on to someone who lives near who will know.  Very helpful on the forum as always

Thanks again

Dee&Tom

 

[cooperlola]

Our Mairie was instrumental in getting ADSL for the village. If that's the case near you, they may know.

[Eslier]

ADSL is the correct univeral name for what, in the UK, is known as "broadband"  (I'm not sure where the name broadband came from - probably an invention of BT !)

ISP is "internet service provider" i.e. Orange, AOL, Alice etc. etc.

ORANGE is the new name for Wanadoo - both names are owned by France Telecom and nothing has changed except the name and logo.

As Ian has explained, if your problem is with the line from your house to the exchange then it makes no difference which ISP you sign up with, the same problem will exist.

Here are a few things you can try - not necessarily in this order (in fact you may be best starting from the bottom up):

1) Check to see what "speed" internet connection you have signed up for. If you've been talked into 8Mb then this may be part of the problem. Phone Orange/FT or call into your nearest FT shop and ask to change to a 1Mb speed. This should be more than adequate (unless you intend downloading lots of films) and your line may cope better with it.

2) Check to see if the ADSL indicator light is illuminated on the Livebox. If it is then your line is connected for ADSL

3) Make sure you have plug in filters on all your telephone connections - both phones and Livebox (no more than three in total).

4) If you have a firewall running, temporarily disable it and see if that enables you to connect to the internet - if it does then get help straight away from someone who knows what they are doing but don't leave the firewall disabled.

[Gyn_Paul]

First of all, check what speed you line should be delivering: Go to  www.degrouptest.com  and enter your phone number. It will test you line and report the maximum speed possible and - more importantly - which level of delivery speed the various providers can offer to you. Ignore, for the moment, everything but the values in the RH column for FT. Some or most will be red and say 'impossible' but at least the first one (IP ADSL 512] should be green and say 'possible'.

If none of the options is green then you are strictly dial-up speed.

If you have at least the slowest ADSL speed then see Eslier's excellent posting above. ( and I think he's right; start from the 4th suggestion and work up the page!)

p