dennerlymum

Hi all
I am sure there is someone here that can help me!
Just moved into the new house. We have subscribed to the tel/livebox/tv package.

We plugged in the tel and livebox on the first day and yesterday noticed that the internet was up and running! However no matter whether we plug the phone via a live box or by itself, we just get an engaged tone. The light on the livebox for a telephone is not on.

Any ideas anyone?

It is the old style livebox.

Thanks in advance!

I tried calling france telecom but our mobile service here is weak and I couldnt get a good enough connection to have a meaningful conversation!

Im_and_Er

With a new subscription it can take several days for the VoIP service to kick in. Was it working this way at the previous address, just checking that your Livebox has the latest firmware.

I believe that you can change it for the newer Livebox 2 if you wish.

cyrian

I agree.
Can't help with livebox but the line for my Neufbox stopped having a dialing tone etc after a few days when it was converted to an ADSL (digital) line and the VOIP was set up.
I imagine that they both work the same way.
Is your tv working thro the livebox?

dennerlymum

TV not set up yet as we have dish issues as well:
it seems wierd that I have internet on a tel line that was specifically reopened for the entry as the line was closed

Thanks for the help so far though

dennerlymum

just called orange and it appears to be sorted or will be very soon; I hadnt received the new log in and pass so we have rectified that and should soon be up and running

Peabrain

I wouldn't bother with television through the internet. Get yourself a satellite dish, point it at Astra 2B, get a Humax Foxsat and a wide screen telly and you'll be all set up for British tv. The only trouble is, most of it's rubbish.

Im_and_Er

I agree. Where you are you should be able to receive the French freeview terrestrial services which most modern TV's can receive via an inbuilt tuner and for which you only need a simple TV style antenna.

Peabrain, if you categorise UK TV programmes as mostly rubbish I can't imagine what is your opinion of French TV is

cyrian

He has been in France for 42 years -does that explain it

dennerlymum

We will mostly have uk TV as we did before with a dish and a skybox. However this was offered and the kids have been clamouring for french TV...

Tweedpipe

Sometimes misleading to generalize in such a way, but imo (now never watching English tv) there's surely good and bad programs everywhere.
Not everyone's taste perhaps, but some of the French tv programs which I think are to a high standard and I try not to miss are:
- Prise Direct FR2
- Pièces à Conviction FR3
- Maison à Vendre M6
- Enquêtes Criminelles W9 - Mme Tweedpipe thinks I watch for Sidonie Bonnec. If only the truth was known........
- Envoyé Special FR2
- Thalassa FR3
- Vie Privée, vie publique FR3
- Turbo M6 (would never miss this)!
- Zone Interdite M6, just to name a few.
And there's also more than a reasonable selection of internationally known films shown every week, to suit all tastes.
Obviously it helps when one can understand all the dialogue, but even with a limited knowledge of French one can usually get the gist, especially beforehand on reading the brief overview always provided in the TV mags; effectively a superb audio-visual aid into becoming fluent in your new country of adoption. You know it makes sense!

dennerlymum

I agree; having recently stayed in a gite with only french tv; I was pleasantly surprised at the good selection on offer

Peabrain

Hi,
I just got next week's Radio Times today. For the first time since before Christmas it hasn't arrived several days late. The subscription costs over a hundred quid a year, and every time I wonder why I bother. There are indeed decent programmes on British television occasionally, there was one about George VI's speech impediment a couple of weeks back that I found really good, but as I couldn't care less about boorish layabouts f'ing their way through food programmes, as I can't afford to buy property in the UK, as my wife is a 7-stone, elegant French woman who doesn't need to lose 15 stone and have a make-over, as I gave up long ago watching Top Gear's over-paid, arrogant, increasingly unfunny racist bully-boys driving cars around that I shall never be able to afford, as I was brought up on Top of the Tops when they used to play whole songs and not just 15 seconds before some burk starts talking over the music, and as the last time I watched a tv soap opera was way back when Elsie Tanner used to undress from time to time to the delight of pimply schoolboys, I can't say that I find much else to watch on British television.
HOWEVER, there is one field where UK tv does still excel, and that is in news coverage. Channel Four news is a delight to watch. In France there is no Jon Snow, no Jeremy Paxman et al; French journalists with their pathetic cowtowing to the French political class are an insult to their profession, and would by no means be out of place in the People's Republic of China. There is nothing like, say, the simple but oh so effective format of Question Time.
In addition, though not much of a sports fan, I can only watch the Six Nations, or the Champions League or whatever with English commentary, however dire, since anything is better than the chauvinist, biased, often uninformed "commentary" from the French.
Where British television is still probably the best in the world, i.e. when dealing with news and politics, French television is appalling. But as Tweedpipe says, not all of it is bad. The only snag is that French television tends to deal in marathon programmes that take up the whole evening. Again, British tv will at least break up the monotony, and if such and such a programme is hopeless, then chances are that there will be something later that might just be watchable.
One reservation about films on French telly though, they are all too often dubbed into French, which is a real turn-off, and so frustrating.

UK television isn't anything like it used to be, but compared with French television, its saving grace is perhaps that it doesn't take itself seriously.
Peabrain

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Ka Ora!

I dont rate the BBC's new coverage at all, Very repetitive and I some times wonder if they are allowing primary schools to gather the information for them.

melbatb

Peabrain - re the Radio Times, if you contact them they will (a) do a 4 week tracking method to see where the problem is and (b) they woll add on weeks for the weeks it arrives late! My MIL is almost on first names terms!

Personally, I just use the online version !!!

cyrian

Brilliant post Peabrain
Glad you got that off your chest.
Next time - try not to hold back and tell us what you really think.
FYI Elsie Tanner was last on Coronation Street in January 1984 and TOTP finished in 2006.


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