Technology

Technology Satellite TV and Internet by Stuart Wallace

What, it’s February already? Where did 2021 and then January go? At least by now we’ll have got rid of COVID-19 won’t we? Eh? We haven’t? Oh. Fear not dear readers, should you be stuck in quarantine at home, held in a nasty hotel waiting to play tennis or simply confused by whatever rule was imposed within the last couple of hours, we at the French House are still here for you. Even if you don’t want us to be. So, without further ado, pause or addition to bulk out the required word count, let us wish you all the best for 2022 and then get cracking with the reason you’re here.

Freesat is not the same as Freeview. The clue is in the name.

Apologies if I’m repeating myself, but I often hear people saying that they need a ‘Humax’ box to get UK TV. This is not exclusively the case. Humax are a manufacturer of satellite receivers and they used to, but no longer, make Freesat boxes for the Freesat service. It is pretty much impossible to purchase a Humax Freesat box these days. They stopped producing them over two years ago. So, the chances are that you need a ‘Freesat’ receiver. Especially if you don’t want to go down the route of a Sky subscription package. There is only one choice of Freesat recorder at present (with three different choices of hard-drive size. 500GB, 1TB & 2TB) and two choices for a non-recording unit.

If installing your own satellite dish, make sure you don’t position the wall bracket too close to your guttering. I see many installations where the client cannot find the signal because the dish, when mounted on the bracket, simply cannot be turned far enough due to it hitting the gutter (or the wall perhaps). Your dish for both UK and French TV needs to point roughly south east so please make sure you give yourself enough room.

I was too late for the December edition, but Channel 4 HD is back on Freesat. It can be found at position 126. There are also some music channels which have made their return and these can be found starting at position 501. If these do not currently appear on your Freesat box, you may need to run a ‘channel search’ to find them.

Talking of which, if you find your satellite receiver unresponsive and you think you have no signal, try switching it off and back on again. It’s quite surprising the number of times that just doing this will fix the issue. If it does, you know where to send the cheque.

New year but same old internet? Don’t forget that satellite internet is now a viable option. Neosat from Nordnet (owned by Orange) offers download speeds of ‘up to’ 100Mbps. This is good, even if you’ll never actually get those speeds - expect around 70Mbps on average. Upload is limited to 5Mbps, which is also pretty good for most people. It’s certainly better than the average ADSL line. Just ensure that everything you need is compatible with satellite internet before you subscribe. With the increasing focus on working from home, potential users need to ensure that their office systems are able to be accessed remotely. All the speed in the world won’t help if you can’t connect. Neosat uses a satellite at 7.2° east of south. So, if you think the system might be suitable for you, then you need to be sure you have a suitable, unobstructed location to mount the dish. The kit Nordnet supply comes with a sturdy wall bracket as the system isn’t ideally suited for a chimney. Whilst we can’t supply the kit, we can certainly install it for you.

Also, just for clarification, you can’t use an old satellite internet dish for satellite TV reception. The LNB (or Tria) is not suitable for TV. It is possible to fit an LNB for TV with a special bracket but it really isn’t worth the hassle.

As always, please feel free to get in touch if you would like any further information or would like to discuss your requirements. Contact details can be found on the advert.

Stuart runs The French House Satellite TV tfhsatellite@gmail.com Other contact details in his advert in the Buildings & Renovations section of the magazine