Wanna do Wanadoo but can't...

[Dick Smith]

Can anyone help me please?

I am currently using a Free.fr dialup connection in the depths of rural Normandy. There is no chance of ADSL in Methuselah's lifetime. Free is rubbish (I think) - low connection speeds plus dropouts and anything takes an abasolute age. That may be my laptop - but it's an almost new Apple Powerbook, so should be alright. I am not considering Tiscali because of comments made about it.

When I go to Wanadoo's website (takes anything up to 10 minutes to load) I can't find anywhere an offer for a dialup service. Does anyone know how I can sign up? Is it true that I can do it at a France Telecom shop?

It's very frustrating at the moment...

[Teamedup]

The first sign up server we had was Wanadoo and I hated it. I hadn't liked AOL much but that was our first and free service for a couple of months and that was why I changed in the first place.

When I got rid of wanadoo I initially signed up for world on line, which then became liberty surf then Tiscali. Tiscali isn't perfect, but I like it a thousand times better than I did Wanadoo. OK it was a while ago when we were with wanadoo , but I have no desire what so ever to change back.

[Deimos]

It used to be that if you have the Wanadoo software you can sign-up online. They used to do a “pay as you go” service. I’m unsure about their current offering, nor what support they offer for Mac’s. You used to be able to download their software or you will certainly be able to get a CD at a FT shop.

However, you mention “deepest rural”. It may be that the drop-outs are due to occasional telephone line interference (or the like). Such things can also cause the modem link to runs slow. If those are you major problems then it may be that it is the telephone rather than the ISP.

I used to get drop-outs on Wanadoo dial-up – normally during/after rain and particularly with both wind and rain. Eventually FT traced the problem down to where the phone line was running through trees and the branches were rubbing the cable (probably rubbed through the insulation and letting water in “they said”. As they were my trees it was my responsibility, etc.

Ian

[Ron Avery]

Dick

You can subscribe on line but the easiest way to get on to Wanadoo is to go to your nearest France Telecom shop and they will do it all for you

Current offer of unlimited for 25€ looks pretty good if you cannot get ADSL yet

Other offers with 12 month sign up arrange from :

6 hours for 5€ per month

30 for 10€

60 for 15€

Through to 25€ for unlimited use

 

I personally have had no trouble with Wanadoo, but it can be invasive if you load it using their CD, look at back posts about this, the general recommendation is to connect manually using the Wanadoo connection passwords etc

[Punch]

I agree with Ron, NEVER use a signup CD for AOL or Wanadoo in France. They install all sorts of uneccesary files which just invade your PC. The best way is to get your identifiant and password either online or in a FT shop and configure the connection manually. I 've been with wanadoo in France for 7 years on dial up and now ADSL and had very few problems.

Paul

[Will]

Dick

I thoroughly agree with you about free - my experience of it was exactly the same. Admittedly, many other people seem to find it OK, but like so much in France it could be a regional thing. I know that in Britain dialup ISPs use different backbones, although the line to your house is thae same whichever you have, and this can result in widely varying performance across the country. I would imagine France is similar.

I have to say that I have used wanadoo in the past, and still have a pay-as-you-go dialup as a backup ISP, and found it no better performance-wise than free around here. As our relative houses are probably no more than about 5km apart I wouldn't imagine it would be much different for you.

Tiscali performs very well in comparison, I'm sorry to say in view of your apparent dislike of it. We get the occasional drop out or slow connection, but significantly better than with either wanadoo or free, and most of the time I get 46 or 48K which is not at all bad for rural France.

I'd advise you to swallow your prejudices. If anybody could dislike Tiscali it would be me, after my experiences in England, which are a long story but led to me first getting involved in the admin of a discussion forum, and a resulting appearance on BBC Watchdog about one of Tiscali's predecessor company's billing and customer service standards. Things are much better now, in fact Tiscali France is more customer-friendly in my opinion than Wanadoo - just try cancelling a Wanadoo contract. In fact the best thing about Free was the ease of cancelling its contract, though as usual others can relate different experiences.

Edit - if you really do want to go for wanadoo, then this link might help http://abonnez-vous.wanadoo.fr/gp/rtc/n_3.php?codo=R-AL

[Dick Smith]

Thanks all, especially Bill. I was against Tiscali because of comments I read here, but if people who can do a direct comparison can recommend it I'll go for it. I might well leave things until I am back in England and can sign up online using Broadband (15 minutes to load Tiscali's welcome page...)

Roll on ADSL. How does satellite broadband work?

[Will]

If it's pay as you go you want Dick, there's no reason why you can't have both wanadoo and Tiscali.

Another thought - would you be close enough to Notre-Dame-du-Touchet to get access to the Nomotech wireless broadband? (www.nomotech.com)

[ChezShells]

Hi

Have you called the English speaking number for France telecom, there is a new way of getting faster internet for us who cant get the usual broadband, apparently we can get it in Sept, give em a ring 0800 364 775

 

[bryansmith]

Hi Dick

we currently have Tiscali in the UK and have found it very good. When we move to France(47) in September we hoped to transfer to Tiscali.fr but they tell me that is not possible. I have sent them notice of leaving and they have accepted that without any problems.

My question is can we set up Tiscali.fr (dial up only there is no broadband in our area of France at the moment) before we leave UK as you seem to indicate in your last post. If so how do we do it? We have a broadband connection at home.We have a telephone line installed in France.

 

[Jon 1]

Dick,

I was on paygo with Tiscal Fr but found the charges were mounting up, so changed to Wanadoo 25 hours, for 10 euros.  I am currently very frustrated with Wanadoo because it is so slow.  They recommended their booster at a supplement, but invariably it cannot cope with many web sites.  Even with the booster it is still far too slow.  I am back on Tiscali Fr paygo at the moment and it is much faster.  I signed up with Wanadoo at the local FT office.  They are ok at sign up but do not want to know if you return there with any problems.  In fact they were quite rude. They tell you to phone Wanadoo at high telephone charges of course, and difficulties in communicating with French speakers only.  I definitely do not recommend Wanadoo.  They are typical of so many French companies, poor service and extremely poor after sales service.  I have also read on another site that they are blacklisted by many web servers because they do nothing about spammers and ignore all complaints.  Apparently many Wanadoo subscribers find that their e-mails have not been accepted because of this problem.  It is really time that companies like these are given the reputation they deserve.  I do not know who I will change to next.  If anyone has any ideas for dial-up with a good ISP and a rate that permits you to cancel without being locked in then please let me know.

[Will]

Bryan,

As long as you know your French address and telephone number you can set up a Tiscali account in Britain, I am assuming it is on a laptop or similar that you will take to France?

If it's a pay-as-you-go account then it's very easy, if it's one with a monthly subcription then you need to set up a prélèvement (direct debit) from a French account during the sign-up, which might be a little more tricky. You can of course always set up a pay-as-you-go account and upgrade it later.

Go to the Tiscali France web site, choose your account type, your user name and password, and you will get a page to print off with your full connection details. If using Windows, just go to 'connections', 'new account' and use the information Tiscali gave you re user name, dial-up phone number. You also have to set up the account in Outlook Express if you want to use your French e-mail address (you will still be able to access your British e-mail addresses from France). The instructions you get from Tiacali are, naturally, in French and are geared to French versions of Windows but it is not at all difficult to translate.

There are more comprehensive details in the FAQ section.

[Will]

Jon

To be fair, Tiscali suffers in the same way (if not worse) concerning e-mails not being accepted. I find this is a particular problem with AOL addresses, but also when e-mailing addresses in the USA as well as NTL in Britain. In fact I sometimes have to switch to a wanadoo connection in order to get some e-mail messages accepted.

The biggest problem with my wanadoo e-mail address is the amount of incoming spam. So much of it, in fact, that I strongly suspect poor security somewhere at Wanadoo. I use Mailwasher to get rid of it while still on wanadoo's server, which is very necessary as a lot of it is the sort of porn that I would not wish to allow anywhere near my own hard disc.