We have an old laptop (running with XP) which we used for a visits to France on Tiscali dial-up to pick up emails etc. The concept of cheap broadband hasn't yet arrived in France and I'm not paying €30 per month for a 12 month contract when I use it maybe for 8 weeks max out of 52.
To the point: In the past, when we got home in UK I used to be able to connect to broadband with no problem. Due to a change of provider, now Orange.fr, the laptop seems to be stuck in a default where it seeks an orange.fr homepage and won't let me connect to broadband in UK. I can't even get to see any wireless networks.
We don't really use it here, there's still a couple of weeks to our next visit and fortunately I've just found out now as I wanted to update the AVG Antivirus. Curiously, the Microsoft updates seemed to be downloaded automatically. I guess orange.fr needs clearing from the default somehow. How do I do this without losing my option of orange.fr dial-up when I need it. A simple toggle option would be nice.
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Blimey, dial up - that takes me back a bit.
Sounds like it has seen a network if it has downloaded M$ updates - have you tried navigating to www.bbc.com in your browser? (It may be that the particular orange.fr page can only be got at when attached to their network).
Also my work lappy has a physical on/off switch for wireless networking. Does yours, and is it on?
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Thanks Smokie but there is no switch - I told you it's an old laptop, there's a card poked into a slot to get wireless connectivity.
On dial-up I'm a fan of Opera browser as it seems pretty fast especially with the turbo option where pictures are stripped out and text definition is reduced but readable.
Anyway, I just tried connecting with IE8 and there it was - fine. Don't know why Opera is unhappy - don't care really.
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>> Blimey, dial up - that takes me back a bit.
>>
To keep my old Freeserve mail account live I have to remember to connect to it via dial up once every 90 days, the only time I hear those bursts on noise and chirping sounds these days. :-)
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>> To keep my old Freeserve mail account live I have to remember to connect to it via dial up once every 90 days....
Alternately just remember to restore your account every now and again.
membercentre.orange.co.uk/MCPres/login.do
Login using your email and password, then click "restore account" on the LH side.
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with wireless hotspots round the world, and email on mobile phones, why would anyone need a dial up account?
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My Orange (UK) dongle insists on connecting first to the Orange homepage, or it did until a nice lady in a call centre in Plymouth helped me fix it.
The problem with the Orange homepage is it's enormous and takes ages to load, unless you've got a quick third generation connection.
Waste of time when all you do is immediately navigate away from it.
The call centre lady took me through a setting up process somewhere deep in 'phone and modem' in the control panel of Windows7.
After typing in several commands which she dictated to me, I now have a separate 'Orange internet' connection which I can access from the little connect icon in the system tray.
This simply connects the dongle and allows me to launch my usual homepage via Firefox.
Great joy.
Last edited by: ifithelps on Mon 9 Aug 10 at 18:54
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Zero
When in very rural France I prefer to catch up on emails, UK news and check tomorrow's weather when I'm in the sitting room with a (cheap) glass of red in my hand. If I want a mobile phone connection I need a step ladder and a long walk down the garden - try balancing a glass of vin while holding the laptop in one hand.
Occasionally we can get a sufficiently good signal at first floor level by holding the phone at arm's length out of the window. Unfortunately the signal varies a lot here and is only good enough to send texts and only sometimes to receive them. Hotspots in our part of France are also very rare - the nearest McDonalds (12 miles away) doesn't even have one.
We are lucky that our village has the possibility of broadband at all - I know plenty of people in neighbouring areas that can only have dial up or satellite connections to the internet. As I said before, our village is wired up for it and we can have it for €30 a month - €360 a year which works out at something like £40 for every week we could use it, so we don't bother. Missing a couple of weeks on here is not a crisis! It doesn't help that there's a tall steel grain silo in line of sight of the nearest transmitter. We also have 2ft thick stone walls and the house is in a valley - we've thought about a high external aerial, but what the heck - who needs much communication when you've got a lovely spot on the planet and a glass of plonk.
Believe me, you don't have to look to hard to find there's another world beyond your cosy techy one in UK. PS That's one reason why I love it.
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Dont tell me your nearest bar/cafe does not have Edge/GPRS/3G?
Thats where I would be, with emails as my excuse to be there........
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The best I can tell you is that the nearest bar/cafe has electricity but sometimes the lights dim when too many people are drawing the supply.
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Agree with DE that the French internet access market is pretty immature compared with ours.
Just back from a fortnight in the Vosges, first time in France with the netbook. Good free WiFi in the BB hotel in Sangatte (and a the end of the holiday in Mulhouse). Otherwise coverage distinctly variable. Colmar tourist office offered WiFi gratuit but it seemed to be limited to their own pages.
First campsite at Oberbronn had a WiFi mesh and, albeit on payment of a fee of E14 for 48hrs, I could surf in the tent. Week 2 however nothing, no hotspot and no 3G signal to speak of. Quickest solution was to nip over the Rhine into Germany where Telecomm hotspots are ten a penny.
I'd quite like a French 3G dongle but they seem expensive compared to the UK and my French is nowhere near good enough to explore the details of whether Bouyeges, SFR or Orange offer the best deals.
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Dial-up default and will not connect to broadband - smokie
