ASTRA 2E now moving to station at 28.5 east

[Michael Crane]

Thanks, Ron.

[pickwick]

Hi all

I sent this to Projection Dreams yesterday:-

Hi Alistair

TESTIMONIAL

The IPTV box supplied by Projection Dreams today does exactly what you said it would do. The box was simplicity itself to install and as soon as I had connected the CAT 5 cable to the box and the HDMI cable from the box to my TV I got a perfect picture on all channels.

I have tried the catch up TV and it too works perfectly. I will be getting my 12 or 24 Mbps internet installed by MEO tomorrow afternoon but the picture quality is perfect with my current speed which I just tested at 4.32Mbps download.

Feel free to use this testimonial

[andara]

Widge wrote

sasha1 wrote:
Hello Andara,

Exactly the same has happened to us and we live near Sesmarias. Would be interested to know what your PT engineer has to say. I contacted them and they said that 0.5 mps was the maximum available!

Sasha

Hello Andara & Sasha,

We also live in Sesmarias although not there at present arrive Tuesday. We have broadband via PT Telecom & the signal is poor especially at peak times. If the only way to receive UK tv is via the net have you thought of an alternative ? What about satellite internet, CabioVisio (spelling ?) retune to different satellite (Biss codes?) somehow we need a Sesmarias solution !

Hello Sasha and Widge

Very interesting to read what the engineer told you Sasha. I still have a copy of my speed tests which clearly show speeds of in excess of 1.4 mps before Feb 10.

Widge,

Until I started to suffer poor quality on my iPad I was quite happy to bide my time until the myriad of new solutions had sorted themselves out, particularly as we still had satellite Sky TV (and the local consensus at present is that we won't lose Sky). However, things may have changed if we now have to suffer very low broadband speeds. I hadn't considered satellite internet, in fact I'm not sure what that is, but I understand that there may be a satellite service that beams Uk Tv from the Gibraltar military location. Mark, from the Tv shop opposite Fatacil appears to be the man to ask and I will go and speak to him. I am still hopeful that I can get my local broadband problem sorted out. One way or another, I think we will find a solution if we keep in touch.

I now know how to copy and paste embedded posts so there's a positive, as they say!

[laserblazer]

The use of moveable dishes to focus on a number of satellites is not recommended in PT due to the high winds and possibility of poor alignments. I have this system in uk and there are several satellites which broadcast BBC/ITV. One option would be to have your dish repositioned for one of these, but this would need a new satellite receiver to suit.

As I understand it, the satellites that transmit the UK channels, are primarily for backup and the signals are encrypted. As it stands, the encryption is quite easy to beat and the BISS keys are regularly available on the internet and the hackers seem to be able to respond to new keys in a few hours. The worry is (for people already using these illegal keys) that if more people join in, then the encryption might get tightened up.

[EMM]

There is apparently an article on Algarve Daily news that reports that there is al a lack of internet capacity ( download speeds ) in Portugal.
At peak times demand is already so high that the service is struggling and that is without the increased demand from those accessing or downloading the TV.
The fibre optic rollout to actual properties is going ahead in some areas but has yet to reach us.
Those who just have an IPTV bxs installed without doing something to increase their internet downlaod speeds could be in for a disappointment.

[andara]

Here is an extract from that article

Re the use of the Internet (IPTV) to receive UK TV here. Two points to bear in mind:

1. Some of the services use a technique often called 'IP Hiding', or sometimes 'proxy servers' which enable the user to appear on the Internet as having an ISP in a different country. e.g. I am with sapo and thus have an IP address looking like 85.24x.xxx.xxx where the x's are other digits - those first few digits identify me to any web-site anywhere as being on a Portugal Telecom system in Portugal.
Hence I can't use for example the BBC iplayer which checks the IP address to ensure only UK people have access. The use of these IP hiding / proxy servers is illegal in Portugal. I am told it is also illegal in several other countries. The use of them can be detected and blocked by the ISP if they care to. There is probably little chance of being caught and the fine is probably fairly small as it is an oldish law. The big problem is that if caught you can be permanently banned from having any Internet access at all (via any supplier) in Portugal. (i.e. if sapo catch me and I'm banned then Vodafone cannot supply me either). This ban would probably also include the use of a 4G mobile phone. You can verify this by looking at the very small print in your own ISP contract.

2. The other problem is capacity. For a decent picture IPTV needs a consistent download speed of about 4Mb/s, 2 will work OK but the
picture quality is poor. All Internet service in the Algarve runs over a single cable from Faro up to Lisbon (and from there to Madrid and hence to Paris and onward). This link to Lisbon is already quite close to capacity. (I have no information about the state of the Madrid and Paris links). If some 10,000 UK expat households in the Algarve should all decide to go onto IPTV this alone could demand an extra 40,000 Mb/s - the whole Internet structure for the Algarve could collapse under the strain. This may take several months to be apparent, but those who use IPTV now are already reporting noticing 'pauses' in reception during early evening. The link badly needs upgrading, but given the current financial problems in Portugal it is unlikely this very expensive (many millions) task will be undertaken any time soon - especially to benefit the expats.

... Maybe satellite internet needs more consideration.

[pickwick]

Andara

Using a VPN in Portugal is certainly NOT illegal. PT (telepac was the PT fixed IP offereing then) set up such a VPN for me in 2008 back to my server in the UK. It is then possible to connect to BBC iplayer from that server and through the VPN be connected from Portugal perfectly above the Law. can you please advise which Law you are referring to??

There are many legitimate perfectly legal reasons why one would want to use a VPN.

Philip

[widge]

can you please advise which Law you are referring to??

"DON'T SHOOT THE MESSANGER " I think Andara is cutting & pasting an article from the press pickwick.

[shanagarry]

Has anybody spoken to these people http://www.broadbandalgarve.co.uk/

I spoke to them a couple of years ago and ruled it out due to the cost (the cost of the dish, installation etc). They kept me on their mailing list and the last piece I saw indicated a sizeable cost reduction. I didn't follow it up. I have heard their recent radio commercials where they offer a monthly 'pay-as-you-go' option and while I have limited technical understanding of the overall concept - is this a practical and cost effective solution?

[andara]

Hello Pickwick,
I was merely quoting a newspaper article, as Widge has pointed out. I'm pretty sure that accessing the internet via a VPN isn't at all illegal, but the sites visited may be, depending upon where you are. For instance, in China, accessing Facebook may get you into serious trouble with the authorities.

I'm equally sure that accessing BBC iPlayer in Portugal, won't incur the wrath of the Portuguese authorities, but any significant overloading of the broadband networks could lead to the ISPs throttling the network and, therefore, cause serious interference to the broadcasts, possibly rendering them unwatchable.

All we can do is plough on and hope the situation will become clearer with time.

[Sheila]

Hi Sheila,
Apple TV is a small device, about the size of a mobile phone. It connects on one side to your broadband router and on the other to your TV. It costs about £75 from Apple or Amazon and many other retail outlets and allows you to project internet TV from your iPad to your TV.

I don't suppose it works with Android devices?

[Sheila]

Has anybody spoken to these people http://www.broadbandalgarve.co.uk/

I spoke to them a couple of years ago and ruled it out due to the cost (the cost of the dish, installation etc). They kept me on their mailing list and the last piece I saw indicated a sizeable cost reduction. I didn't follow it up. I have heard their recent radio commercials where they offer a monthly 'pay-as-you-go' option and while I have limited technical understanding of the overall concept - is this a practical and cost effective solution?

This looks very reasonable

http://www.broadbandalgarve.co.uk/21012 ... broadband/

But how far would 1gb go?

[EMM]

Not far if you are a TV addict like some we know who have it on all day.

[Sheila]

Not far if you are a TV addict like some we know who have it on all day.

According to a previous post half an hour of Filmon uses half MB so 1 gb would give over 1000 hours of TV.
At £12.50 for 1gb at 4mps sounds great...and no need for the landline fee if you only want internet without phone.

[e-richard]

According to a previous post half an hour of Filmon uses half MB....At £12.50 for 1gb at 4mps sounds great.

Yup, but the problem is that the previous post should have said "half an hour of Filmon uses half Gb."

This may change your arithmetic a little !