Internet in France

[colin_jones]

In France, during early July of this year, two Internet and email systems ( both mobile phone and notebook PC to AOL) which had worked in other years and for six weeks of this year, suddenly crashed.

The technicians at Orange (Lorient) were not able to rectify, nor explain the fault and it baffled some experts elsewhere. Every time we tried to log on, we got he message ‘ The modem is unable to obtain a carrier’ or ‘ Number unobtainable.’

We got the same when we tried to load Wanadoo and Tiscali and also to get in using our UK SIM card and a UK number. No joy.

The modem was working OK for SMS ( a less demanding data sysytem)nand as soon as we returned to UK, both phones and notebooks logged onto AOL via the Vodafone network.

It looks as though the problem is with recently changed and unannounced Itineris/Orange ( France Telecom) protocols, but I am not getting any sensible answers from them. The problem has been reported to AOL, who are investigating ---- slowly.

I have met one other crew who had the same problem, but should be pleased to have contact with anybody else who met it, so that we might be able to solve it and get us all back on line for French cruising asap

 

[hilaryjane]

I don't know if it is related but I experienced a problem connecting my Toshiba Satellite laptop and Nokia cardphone in France from mid August until present time.
The card phone worked for voice and text messages but when I tried to connect to the internet it would fail half way through dialing with an error message about my modem which had previously worked fine. This was with Itineris and Fbougytel.
I too tried loading Wanadoo with the help of an assistant in the internet cafe in Lorient but no go. Orange Customer Services seem baffled but are replacing cardphone in case it's a hardware problem.
ps Targa Star is safely tucked up in the Basin Flot in Bordeaux for the winter prior to canal du midi at Easter - any advice where we can get published info about water levels and planning closures?