We’ve just upgraded our Orange equipment from a Livebox 2 to a Livebox 4.
Apparently you can do this for free.
But as it happens we also upgraded our package to get free phone calls to a greater selection of countries (110 vs 100) and includes all French mobiles. This cost us the princely sum of 1€ per month.
The biggest bonus has been an increase in the speed of our Internet connection of more than 50%. We are at the end of a country lane some kilometres from the nearest concentrator. Previously we were only able, on a good day, to get 4Mb/s download speed.
We now get in excess of 6 Mb/s and upto 7 Mb/s. In plain English our Internet is a lot faster.
We did then have an on-line chat with Orange about the mechanics of the deal - what happened if the box didn’t work etc, etc.
You have to take your old Livebox to the relais point that Orange send the new one to. Thus you are without an Internet connexion (and phone depending on your contract) for a while.
However, it all worked as it said “on the tin”.
We plugged in the Livebox 4 in place of the old Livebox 2 and bingo - Internet 50% plus faster, phone number activated, everything works as before but faster.
Stupid question Grahame-but did your phone number stay the same-I presume your phone goes through the livebox? Is it as easy to fit as just remove cables from old and fit to new? I’m not very technically minded.
I was once told that the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask.
The phone number, our email addresses all stayed the same.
The only difference is that the password to log on to the network changed. However, I didn’t need to do anything. We just unplugged the old Livebox 2, took to to the local relais (a tabac in the next village) handed it over in exchange for the Livebox 4 and plugged in the Livebox 4 when we got home.
It all worked, but faster.
One thing that nearly went wrong was we sent back the French T-socket to RJ45 socket adapter for the phone with the LIvebox 2 - BIG mistake as there wasn’t one with the Livebox 4.
Fortunately we had a spare one in a cupboard and it only took us about half-an-hour to find it!
With the Livebox Up package we get Internet, phone, free calls to landlines in 110 countries, free calls to French mobiles plus mobiles in the USA and Canada, 24 hour phone support, 08:00-20:00 support using on-line chat, problem resolution in 24 hours (never needed to test that fortunately).
We could have had the TV option if we’d paid a once off 40€ for the decoder but the basic package of channels is a bit limited and we get most of our news on-line.
The internet speed with Livebox Up using the Livebox 4 is about 50% faster than with the LIvebox 2 even living at the end of a country lane.
This costs about 43€ which is only 1€ more than we were paying for a worse service with our Livebox Zen package.
Thank you Grahame. We have a holiday home near Lauzerte, but as we are only there for part of the year we are wondering whether it’s worth the expense. We currently use an Orange 4g internet key but it is very slow.
Thank you Stella. Yes we do have a place near Lauzerte in the Tarn-et-Garonne. We use it as a holiday home at the moment but may consider moving over permanently at some point.
Ok last stupid question. How long were you without internet while swopping the box? I assumed that Orange sent the new box and when it arrived at the collection point you unplugged your old box, packed it up and went to swop it-so an hour or so. But from what you wrote it sounds as if it was longer.
we were without our Internet for about an hour/hour and a half. It was probably about 2 hours that we were without our phone, but the extra time was taken up rummaging through cupboards and boxes to find another T-socket to RJ45 adaptor.
Grahame- thanks for answering all my (non) techie questions😁. Definitely going to look at this-after all can’t be any worse than what we currently get.
Just as an aside.
We had a problem with a diminishing speed level which we reported to Orange. An engineer was sent and he checked out the system/connections from the exchange to the DTI in the house.
He changed the DTI and that seemed to improve matters.
We mentioned our old LiveBox 2 and he said he had a LiveBox 4 in the van and duly swapped them over.
As Grahame said, the phone took about an hour to re-connect and the old settings (in particular the WiFi ones) had to be reset with mobile devices/TV/WiFi printers etc. but no big deal to achieve.
Our speed did not really improve much over what had been achieved by replacing the DTI and the engineer additionally commented that the broad difference between the series 2 and 4 devices was reliability.
Apparently, the series 2 was more fault tolerant of problems in the supply but the series 4 gives a much better WiFi capability.
This could mean of course that improvements discovered are as a result of better WiFi than an improvement per se in the basic level of speed - on the premise that you can’t make a silk purse out of a pigs ear…
So, in practical terms, this could mean that where in the past poor speed/connectivity of devices was as a result of poor signal propagation in the house, the version 4 device overcomes the previous limitations of version 2 giving an improved customer experience but the basic underlying speed has not really improved - just that it can be more adequately exploited.
with our installation we use ethernet connections for our pc/notebooks and only occasionally use wifi if working outside or for the Kindles.
We had the DTI box changed some years ago, it didn’t make any difference to the speed but it improved the reliability. Having said that out DTI box is still a T-socket type.
We are at the end of a chemin communal several kilometeres from the nearest concentrator which is in the next village.
Our download speed with the Livebox 2 varied between 3500 kbits/sec to 4200 kbits/sec - with the Livebox 4 it varies from 6000 kbits/sec to 7400 kbits/sec.
From the techie information I have been able to glean from here and there the improved Internet speed is part due to the improved technology in the Livebox 4 and part due to the improved ADSL filter they supply to plug into the DTI.
At the moment we are getting 6450 kbits/sec on our Internet connection, with the Livebox 2 we would get 3500/4000 kbits/sec on a Saturday afternoon.
Hi
Been following your internet discussion with interest but as ever willing to wander off the point.You suggested to a fellow second homer that it would be good to secure their rights to reside in France full time in the future or was that to continue as a secondhomer? We have had a second home in France for 20 years and would like to continue that privilege but don’t know of anything we can do biggest and see?
In our commune, we have folk of all nationalities… American, Italian, Dutch, British, Irish, Spanish, Chinese, South African, etc etc owning holiday homes…and they visit their property in France with no hassle.
I know of no reason why you should have any problems continuing to own your holiday home here…and enjoying your holidays here …
Although you may have “paperwork” to do when you travel… that is the only aspect that might change…I reckon.
