[ILUG] [OT] French free dialup isps

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 12:02:14 +0100
  | From: Gavin McCullagh <ilug_gmc at fiachra.ucd.ie>
  | 
  | My parents are going to France for 7 weeks and are bringing
  | a laptop.  They intend getting a phone line in and using
  | email, the web etc.  I've to set up the second-hand blank
  | laptop tonight/tomorrow.  I've been talking to them and
  | think I may go with linux for them.
  | 
  | I need to setup a simple dialup for them.  Several list
  | members are based in France.   I wonder is there a free
  | service I can register online and setup before they go.

 no idea.  the free service I have used (`free.fr',
 who seem quite reasonable) required a snail-mail address,
 presumably in France, to which is sent yer password and
 CHAP secrets (which is all you need), and a CD with some
 Windross junkware.  you could _try_ registering an Irish
 snail-address, but I'm rather doubt it would work; and in
 any case, it'd take a week or more for the package to arrive.

  | I'd like to actually set it up and connect once or twice
  | by trunk call so I _know_ it works.  They just need the
  | connection, email will be already sorted.

 good idea.

  | * Are the phone lines the same as Ireland or do they need
  |   some sort of adaptor?

 you need an adaptor.  the French telephone connectors
 look like they were designed in the 19th century; they
 are a massive T-shaped gizmo the size of yer thumb.
 I got my adaptor in a computer shop, but presume they
 are available elsewhere --- I've never really looked.
  ( when are yer parents leaving?  it occurs to me that
   if it's not for c.2 weeks or more, then I should be
   able to get one and snail-mail it to you in time;
   price is a beer or two whenever we can meet up.
   please reply OFF-LIST. )

  |[ ... ]
  | * Would there be a linux howto or documented ppp settings
  |   somewhere?

 the PPP settings should not differ between Ireland and
 France (excepting, of course, CHAP secrets, but that's
 an ISP/security issue, not a country issue).
 you should set the DNS stuff (nameserver), and maybe a
 username/password;
 if you use wvdial(1) that should handle the login chat
 stuff, albeit you might have to tweak a setting or two.
 and that's it?
 oh... for some modems, you might need to set the country
 (not quite sure what this does, but I think it adjusts
 for things like different ring signals; I have _not_
 done this, and haven't had any (known) problem).

 also, assuming things will go wrong, you may want to
 think about how you will remotely debug/fix the problem
 (which I assume means talking to yer parents on the
 phone --- which, assuming they one have one line,
 also means they couldn't actually try things whilst
 you are on-voice).

cheers!
	-blf-

  | Many thanks in advance
  |  Gavin
--
«How many surrealists does it take to    |  Brian Foster      Montpellier,
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