You may wish to connect to the Internet or to access e-mail while you are in France. Although France is currently making a lot of bold statements about joining the Internet world, they are in fact way behind the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany and most of the rest of the world. Officially 18% of French people have access to the Internet. My guess is a fraction of this is the truth.

There are many reasons, the use of French as a main language, pride in an earlier and now obsolete technology (Minitel), high telephone charges by the France Telecom monopoly and the general attitude that if it is not French it is not good.

If you are near us you are welcome to use our servers to access your mail, if you bring your laptop and wish to log-on then these notes may help you.

Telephone plugs in France are strange, huge sockets. You can buy for about one euro an adapter for the standard US plug.

Voltages are 240 volts at 50 Hz, most portable power supplies are automatically adaptable so this is not a problem. Buy a plug adapter at the airport for European sockets.

Bring spare battery packs if possible and don't forget your charger.

Learn how to configure your Dial Up Networking (DUN) wizard on your computer. If you have a problem mail me.

You will need a server, Paris is more sophisticated, but the France Telecom monopoly means you pay for every second of local calls. You can get a CD-Rom from France Telecom (Wanadoo is their ISP) or several others from any computer store but their browser will take over your computer and everything will then be in French. If you really want a French version of Internet Explorer at version 5.0 then carry on, but I warned you.

Some ISP's give a free trial period, this may see you through your visit.

If you are renting a home with a phone in it, the owner will probably have set it for incoming calls only. You can dial out using your credit card or by buying a pre-paid card, see the first link below. You can configure your DUN to accept the card numbers in front of the server number, sometimes you need to add commas (,,,,) to delay the dialing.

There are some free services on a pay per minute rate. This is expensive but may be a good solution if you are traveling

Here is a link to a list of ISP's in France, I am sure it is not a complete list but it may help.

Other links related to Internet and computers.

www.chateaukeyboard.com/2002  Dr Keyboard's Gourmet Computer Masterclasses are not like conventional computer classes.

At Chateau Keyboard you won't sit in stuffy classrooms for hours on end, staring at blackboards or whiteboards and overhead projectors, listening to someone who's even more bored than you are drone on and on with only the prospect of self-service canteen food to look forward to.

http://www.free-gourmet-recipes.com  delicious, mouth-watering recipes that will mesmerize your taste buds.

http://www.drkeyboard.com/  Dr Keyboard is the largest privately-owned database of computing questions and answers in the world. Here you can read all the previous Dr Keyboard Questions and Answers - including Absolute Beginners - and the Shortcuts column also written every week by Dr Keyboard author Chris Ward-Johnson in The Times (of London).

Dotster.com One of the best name registers on the Internet

http://www.webhostsonline.com/ If you want to find a host, this site has a good selection , the copy seems to be writen by the companies so be prepared for some hype.

www.redhotmouse.com professional web design and promotion for French property owners classification

http://www.hypersend.com/ When you've got an important document to send from point A to point B, don't rely on your e-mail client. No matter the file size, HyperSend will become your digital courier. Privacy and proof of delivery are provided.

Cluetrain Anyone designing websites should visit this site

grc.com Gibson Research Corporation, If only all software was this good. Check your security, firewall, disc recovery and mailing software and a lot of it is free.

Zonelabs The Zonelabs firewall software is good and still free.

PegasoWeb Web promotion software and ideas.

http://www.free.cf Free domain name