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Freesat & freetime+ in rural France


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Old 15-11-2013, 21:11
Ladyblue
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I don't know if anybody could help I am looking to buy my parents for Christmas a freesat freetime+ box but as they live in rural France (Vendee) I am unsure if all the features would work (eg catch up, twin record and iplayers) ? as I brought my dad an ipad last year and I now have to pay monthly for him to have an English IP address so he can watch our full sky package (oh those pesky parents are expensive).

I am looking to visit them before Christmas to set it all up as a surprise but I really do not want to travel all that way 10 hours from the tunnel to find not only that some features do not work but that I don't have all the right leads.

Ahh this is causing my a nightmare as I have a little bit of knowledge but this keeps getting confused as I am being told soo many different things please let there be somebody that can help and give me the information I need in laymen's terms.
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Old 15-11-2013, 21:43
andy@spencerjou
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Hi.
The twin tuners should work if you have a twin LNB on the satellite dish with 2 cables running from it that are connected to the freesat freetime box.
For freetime+ to work you'll need to connect the box to the internet router and for the catch up players, iPlayer etc will need to be routed through a UK IP address to work. I'm not sure how you would make these settings on the freetime box - maybe someone else can advise.
In terms of leads you'll need an HDMI lead to connect the freetime box to the TV and an Ethernet/network lead to connect the box to the router. These are usually but not always provided with the box but it's worth checking.
If the box will be some distance from the router 2 powerline network plugs will do the trick - buy in France or take UK ones and a pair of 3pin to 2pin adapters.

Hope you get this sorted out okay.
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Old 16-11-2013, 06:47
REPASSAC
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What size dish do you propose?
The satellite footprint is set to shrink with 2E coming very soon and with 2G in the spring. I would have thought 60cm would be OK but I would probably go for an 80cm to future proof.
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Old 17-11-2013, 12:37
Ladyblue
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Thank you both for your comments but it is sounding like I would need to update their dish as they are still using the one they took with them from 2001, and I must admit I am not liking the idea of climbing on the roof and fiddling with the old one ( perhaps I could ask papa noel to arrange this while he is out on his Christmas eve delivers ).
Sounds like the 5 weeks of research where wasted, wish I had found this site earlier.
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Old 17-11-2013, 16:11
REPASSAC
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Thank you both for your comments but it is sounding like I would need to update their dish as they are still using the one they took with them from 2001, and I must admit I am not liking the idea of climbing on the roof and fiddling with the old one ( perhaps I could ask papa noel to arrange this while he is out on his Christmas eve delivers ).
Sounds like the 5 weeks of research where wasted, wish I had found this site earlier.
If they can get channel 5 OK currently (any region) or 4HD then I would that the same signal would apply to channels moving to 2E in a few weeks.

No one knows what the footprint of 2G will be like (except Astra)
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Old 18-11-2013, 07:31
FRENCH SKY
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I have been fitting satellites in France for 9 years,and as far as I can tell there is no way of fooling the FREETIME box to give the impression of being in the UK. I live in a rural location and use an internet satellite registered in the UK and get FREETIME that way,But it is expensive,I expect you know how useless France Telecom are they almost make BT look good. So most rural locations suffer very poor download speeds .
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Old 18-11-2013, 08:20
REPASSAC
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I have been fitting satellites in France for 9 years,and as far as I can tell there is no way of fooling the FREETIME box to give the impression of being in the UK. I live in a rural location and use an internet satellite registered in the UK and get FREETIME that way,But it is expensive,I expect you know how useless France Telecom are they almost make BT look good. So most rural locations suffer very poor download speeds .
A UK based VPN works well and so does services such as http://www.unblock-us.com/ (faster than a VPN),
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Old 18-11-2013, 11:17
FRENCH SKY
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How would this work with a Humax box?
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Old 18-11-2013, 11:34
-GONZO-
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How would this work with a Humax box?
You change the DNS on the box or directly into the router and you will be able to use the on demand players.
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Old 18-11-2013, 13:06
jthspace
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No one knows what the footprint of 2G will be like (except Astra)
It looks like the UK beam will have a VERY sharp cut-off, so France/Spain may lose signal . . .

Jeff

http://www.satlaunch.net/2012/03/ast...ootprints.html
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Old 18-11-2013, 16:26
REPASSAC
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It looks like the UK beam will have a VERY sharp cut-off, so France/Spain may lose signal . . .

Jeff

http://www.satlaunch.net/2012/03/ast...ootprints.html
Looks much the same as 2E and 2F to me.
Those footprints only show reception on up to 60cm dishes.
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Old 04-12-2013, 02:39
Winston_1
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Hi.
The twin tuners should work if you have a twin LNB on the satellite dish with 2 cables running from it that are connected to the freesat freetime box.
For freetime+ to work you'll need to connect the box to the internet router and for the catch up players, iPlayer etc will need to be routed through a UK IP address to work. I'm not sure how you would make these settings on the freetime box - maybe someone else can advise.
In terms of leads you'll need an HDMI lead to connect the freetime box to the TV and an Ethernet/network lead to connect the box to the router. These are usually but not always provided with the box but it's worth checking.
If the box will be some distance from the router 2 powerline network plugs will do the trick - buy in France or take UK ones and a pair of 3pin to 2pin adapters.

Hope you get this sorted out okay.
No, don't use power line adapters. They are a greedy crap technology that WILL cause interference to the neighbours. 3 pin to 2 pin adapters are crap as well, you lose the earth protection. There are UK to French adapters but the pins are too thin and live/neutral gets reversed. Avoid.
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Old 04-12-2013, 07:09
REPASSAC
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No, don't use power line adapters. They are a greedy crap technology that WILL cause interference to the neighbours. 3 pin to 2 pin adapters are crap as well, you lose the earth protection. There are UK to French adapters but the pins are too thin and live/neutral gets reversed. Avoid.
I have only ever seen one UK/European adapter that was not properly earthed (quite some years back). As usual you paint an OTT view of this and all power line adapters.
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Old 04-12-2013, 09:36
grahamlthompson
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No, don't use power line adapters. They are a greedy crap technology that WILL cause interference to the neighbours. 3 pin to 2 pin adapters are crap as well, you lose the earth protection. There are UK to French adapters but the pins are too thin and live/neutral gets reversed. Avoid.
Happily there's no Winston_1 in France . They have been in common use in France for a very long time. Unlike the UK multiphase installations are quite common. There's an old thread somewhere that says they even work in the same property across different phases.

A couple of weeks ago the Digital expert in no less a publication as the Radio Times recommended said devices. This leaves Winston_1 rather far out on a limb with a chain saw
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Old 05-12-2013, 14:12
Winston_1
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A couple of weeks ago the Digital expert in no less a publication as the Radio Times recommended said devices. This leaves Winston_1 rather far out on a limb with a chain saw
Link?
So called experts in such magazines are often anything but.
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Old 05-12-2013, 14:21
Winston_1
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I have only ever seen one UK/European adapter that was not properly earthed (quite some years back). As usual you paint an OTT view of this and all power line adapters.
We were talking about 3 pin to 2 pin adapters. If only 2 pins there cannot be an earth.

UK to French adapters are 3 pin to 3 pin adapters. Still crap however, as I said the pins are too thin and the live/neutral is reversed. Many of the worlds electrical systems are safe including the French and UK systems. Mixing them together with adapters is not. Adapters generally do not conform to any recognised standard.

All power line adapters create harmful interference whether in France or the UK. All new builds and rewires in France have to have CAT 5 cabling to all rooms from a central location so there is no need to use crap interfering technology.
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Old 05-12-2013, 14:32
REPASSAC
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We were talking about 3 pin to 2 pin adapters. If only 2 pins there cannot be an earth.

......
Not so. A standard French earthed socket has one pin sticking up. The three pin to two pin adapter should have a hole to receive the socket pin - this ensures live and negative cannot be reversed. If live and earth were transposed in all modern French electrical installs this would result in the immediate detection of earth leakage and power disconnection by the Interrupteur Différentiel.
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Old 05-12-2013, 19:47
Bspks
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Not so. A standard French earthed socket has one pin sticking up. The three pin to two pin adapter should have a hole to receive the socket pin - this ensures live and negative cannot be reversed. If live and earth were transposed in all modern French electrical installs this would result in the immediate detection of earth leakage and power disconnection by the Interrupteur Différentiel.

As an electrician who has relatives in France, I have added a few sockets to my sister's house there, and have discovered that, on a double socket, which are often mounted one above the other rather than side by side, one of the sockets has the Live and Neutral pins reversed compared to the other.
On a French installation to NF standard (the French equivalent to BS) this causes no safety hazard as the circuit breakers in French domestic consumer units break both (L & N) conductors in the event of a fault.
That said, there are versions of Powerline style adaptors readily available in French shops, so if you buy one locally, it will have been designed with all necessary safety measures to operate correctly in sockets to NF standards, irrespective of the polarity of the L & N pins.
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Old 05-12-2013, 20:20
dougietamson
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I have a Humax HB-1000s here in France (near Paris on 100Mbit broadband).
All services working including HD iPlayer. Here is how...
The Humax ethernet port is connected to a 2nd router/wifi box (TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v1). This router/wifi box is connected to the internet on my ISP router/wifi box (BBOX).
On the 2nd router, I have configured to automatically connect to my VPN service, this means any device, wifi or wired that is connected to my 2nd router appears on a UK IP address, no need to set anything on the Humax box, it's just set to the default setup 'out of the box' when I bought it.
Not all router/wifi boxes support connecting to a VPN service.
I pay 2 quid/month to rent a virtual server for my VPN which I setup myself on a linux but if you pay a little bit more you can get a VPN service.
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Old 05-12-2013, 20:57
REPASSAC
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I have a Humax HB-1000s here in France (near Paris on 100Mbit broadband).
All services working including HD iPlayer. Here is how...
The Humax ethernet port is connected to a 2nd router/wifi box (TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v1). This router/wifi box is connected to the internet on my ISP router/wifi box (BBOX).
On the 2nd router, I have configured to automatically connect to my VPN service, this means any device, wifi or wired that is connected to my 2nd router appears on a UK IP address, no need to set anything on the Humax box, it's just set to the default setup 'out of the box' when I bought it.
Not all router/wifi boxes support connecting to a VPN service.
I pay 2 quid/month to rent a virtual server for my VPN which I setup myself on a linux but if you pay a little bit more you can get a VPN service.
The price is very good - please quote a URL.
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Old 05-12-2013, 21:17
dougietamson
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For cheap VPS offers, go here http://lowendbox.com/tag/uk/
You don't need much to get a pptp VPN going, I got one with 128MB RAM and 10GB disk.
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Old 06-12-2013, 00:27
Winston_1
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Not so. A standard French earthed socket has one pin sticking up. The three pin to two pin adapter should have a hole to receive the socket pin - this ensures live and negative cannot be reversed. If live and earth were transposed in all modern French electrical installs this would result in the immediate detection of earth leakage and power disconnection by the Interrupteur Différentiel.
It is so. A 3 pin to 2 pin adapter is just that. No hole to receive the earth pin.

A UK to French adapter reverses live and neutral. The UK plug ends upside down so that the live ends up on the left pin. This of course assumes the French socket is wired correctly, many are not! Live/ neutral reverse is dangerous with a UK plug because if the internal fuse goes the equipment is left live.
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Old 06-12-2013, 00:33
Winston_1
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Not so. A standard French earthed socket has one pin sticking up. The three pin to two pin adapter should have a hole to receive the socket pin - this ensures live and negative cannot be reversed. If live and earth were transposed in all modern French electrical installs this would result in the immediate detection of earth leakage and power disconnection by the Interrupteur Différentiel.
It is so. A 3 pin to 2 pin adapter is just that. No hole to receive the earth pin.

A UK to French adapter reverses live and neutral. The UK plug ends upside down so that the live ends up on the left pin. This of course assumes the French socket is wired correctly, many are not! Live/ neutral reverse is dangerous with a UK plug because if the internal fuse goes the equipment is left live.
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Old 06-12-2013, 00:40
Winston_1
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That said, there are versions of Powerline style adaptors readily available in French shops, so if you buy one locally, it will have been designed with all necessary safety measures to operate correctly in sockets to NF standards, irrespective of the polarity of the L & N pins.
That is so, but it does not alter the fact that like all PLT devices it WILL cause harmful interference to other users of the RF spectrum.
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Old 06-12-2013, 08:20
Nigel Goodwin
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That is so, but it does not alter the fact that like all PLT devices it WILL cause harmful interference to other users of the RF spectrum.
Usual complete and utter nonsense - give it a rest, or at least post FACTS not your wild imaginings!.
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