instant pay as you go internet access

[Les]

I recently wanted to use the Internet having had my phone line installed but had no account in France. It then occured to me that my computer still had an internal modem installed which was configured for Virgin pay as you go access in the UK.

I altered the dial up settings to include 0044 and removed the first 0 from the Virgin number and to my surprise it worked straight away.

I have just had my phone bill from France Telecom and the calls are charged the same as normal calls to the UK.

I know that this method will not suit everyone but at least it was a quick solution for me as I don't use the net too often.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote user="Les"]

I have just had my phone bill from France Telecom and the calls are charged the same as normal calls to the UK.

[/quote]

Maybe so, but it must have been alot more than a call to a PAYG French ISP. There is nothing to stop you accessing your email server with Virgin via a French ISP.

 

[Deimos]

I would have thought a PAYG connection to a French ISP would be much cheaper than paying for a call to the UK (particularly if its France Telecom billing you for the calls to the UK).

 

Ian

[ChezShells]

Hi

Maybe try and get a PAYG account via tiscali or whoever prior to moving or maybe someone could share their connection setup while you get sorted.

Lee

[CBC]

Tried to post this question yesterday, here goes again:

Being a bit thick about these things, how do you access an email server, say Free, from a different ISP?

Many thanks for your help.

RP

[Deimos]

Do what you normally do.  Leave your e-mail configuration, etc. unchanged and just connect to the different ISP.  The internet connection and e-mail server are separate from each other.

It like viewing web sites that are not under your ISP – no problems.

For example, suppose you normally use e.g. a connection to Wanadoo ISP to check for mail on pop.wanadoo.fr and smtp.wanadoo.fr (i.e. your Outlook accounts are set to check for/send main through pop.wanadoo.fr and smtp.wanadoo.fr).  For some reason one day you change your ISP connection to e.g. Alice.  Leave your e-mail account settings unchanged and they will still work fine (even add Alice accounts to be checked as well as the old ones if you want).  My Outlook checks for (and sends) e-mail thought 4 different accounts through the same ISP connection (plus another IM client I run is checking for mail on a load of other historical old accounts with UK ISPs).

If your e-mail program is set to automatically dial/hang-up the internet connection then this would need changing but that is the connection and not the e-mail accounts.

 

The ISP is providing you with a network connection to the internet.  The fact that they also bundle in an e-mail account is part of the “package” but not a requirement on your network connection.

Some years ago some ISPs (e.g. BT) used to limit access to their e-mail servers from overseas (requiring people to use browsers for international e-mail access).  I doubt that anybody would get away with that these days.

 

Ian

[CBC]

Thanks for your suggestion, will get it a try!