Receive calls from Germany via German phone number in Australia

January 29, 2009 - A-life & Australia & ENGLISH - (1) COMMENT

It was a good day!
I could finally install two different phone numbers (sip numbers) in my Fritzbox DSL modem. My new Australian phone number, with which I can make free local and national calls, and my new German phone number, which I arranged for my German family and friends so that they can call me for free (if they have a phone flat) or for a local or national call’s cost. Sounds good? It is awesome!
I need to mention Sven and his great blog, from where I have the idea, because he wrote about it how he uses a German (Hamburg) phone number in Sydney to receive calls from home.

I must also mention that we don’t have a fixed phone line here at our home in Perth.
I know, that is confusing.

Both phone numbers are REAL phone numbers: they look like one (with the proper city codes), they act like one (you can dial them from Germany or from Aussieland with any phone, you don’t need a computer at all), but they work over the internet (for me, that does not need to interest the caller), not through the old fashion phone line. There is no difference in call quality.

I use a modern cordless phone, which is like new, but cost us only $2 at a garage sale a bit down our road. I think they thought the phone was not working, because the battery was not put in right. After we changed it, it worked best. The phone hasn’t been used at all. In the shops it costs around $80. *g*

Ok, back to my new phone numbers.
The German number works great. I already used it with my dad today. He called and was surprised that I was so “close” to hear and that the quality was even better than with calling my Australian mobile or calling through skype. Yes, it was a great qualitiy. If felt like we were in the same town. No delay at all. Perfect! And the best, my parents can now call me for free, because they can call German fixed phone lines for free…and my number is a Ecktown (aka Eckernfoerde) number. I thought that connects me with my roots. :]

My Australian number works just as good. My Australian friend K. tried it out today and called her relatives over east and was impressed by the call quality.

With both phone numbers I have a voicemail set up. I could not get connected to my sipgate (German) number’s voicemail yet. It says that it is not in service. It might not work because my dial out number is the Australian number, and of course I can’t use that number to call my German sip number’s voicemail. Hmm..that’s tricky…but I’m sure I will figure it out somehow… otherwise I think it said that the voicemail messages are sent out as .wav file via email, which is another option if I can’t listen to them via phone. (Technik, die begeistert!)

I will now send some emails out with my new phone numbers. If you don’t get one, but you would like to have either the Australian or the German one, just let me know here in the comments or via email.

EDIT:
My sister (living in Stuttgart) just called me and told me that she has a fixed phone flatrate on her mobile phone, which means that she can now call me for free from her mobile! Crazy!
I LOVE THE INTERNET AND ITS POSSIBILITIES! And I love German (mobile) phone providers for offering flatrates for a bargain (where Australia is way behind).

A dream becomes true

January 27, 2009 - A-life & Australia & ENGLISH - (4) COMMENTs

In a nutshell: We finally have the internet at our home!!

Our provider, iinet, said they will switch the line between 1pm and 5pm, but already at noon I received the DSL signal. How great is that? Awesome!

BUT, it was only the dsl signal, which didn’t mean that we could surf the internet.
I had my German Fritzbox 7050 shipped over and was reading a lot of websites and forums to figure out the correct way to switch my modem’s firmware from Annex B (which is being used in Germany) to Annex A (which is used in Australia). The forums gave me quite a headache, because of the amount of posts to read through to that topic. A lot of people had trouble with switching the Annex version.
I had a very new firmware update in my Fritzbox and could finally find a posting that explained how to do the procedure with this newer firmware (14.04.33).

The DSL signal came to my box with even still haven’t changed the Annex from B to A, which made me think I may be able to use the modem without harming the firmware.
But I was wrong.
We couldn’t browse any site, which may be the reason because we haven’t received our iinet password yet. I called our provider “iinet” and was positively surprised that they have a call back service. I left my number and it estimated the time when I will receive the call back. Exactly at that time my phone rang, but unfortunately a computer voice said that my call back had been canceled. Bummer! Why that?

I called the support hotline again and decided to stay on hold this time….10 or more minutes later something /someone disconnected me. WTF? I wanted to call again but I ran out of phone credit (prepaid) and could not even send an sms anymore. Empty! Money gone, and I just recharged on the 11th! Normally I use the credit for a full month and have sometimes even a left over of credit. I thought the iinet hotline is only charged as a local call? Probably not. Now I was angry!

Nathan called from work and asked if he shall call them again. Sure, why not. I need to buy new credit first, anyway.

When I picked him up from work he had the password and the settings we needed. At least he was successful. But still, back at home, we could not get access to the internet.

That was the time when I changed the Annex version of my modem, because it really seemed that Annex B won’t work here in Australia. Yes, I knew it before…but you never know…software…computers…they are weird sometimes. Haha. :]

I uploaded the “fritz_as_annex_a_kernel_args_newer.tar” file, which I got from the “ip-phone-forum.de” and after the box rebooted itself the Annex was changed to A. Yeah, that was easy. Unbelievable (after I have read all that trouble people had with doing this)!

I also updated the software with the “fritz_as_avm_newer.tar” file. Don’t ask me why, the file was in the same thread in that forum mentioned above and I didn’t know if this file also need to get into my fritzbox. Well, I guess it didn’t hurt.

So we had Annex A, the right firmware for the Australian DSL market running, but still didn’t get the connection to the indernett.

We called our provider iinet again, left our number, and this time they called back and could help us.
There was a mistake in the password (an o instead of a zero, which most people spell as “oh”) and the username was wrong. The DNS settings weren’t that important, so we deleted them.

Yay, it wasn’t my mistake of hacking my fritzbox to the death, so we widened our eyes and made a big happy grin, because we finally, after months, have our own internet, only for us, at home, any time we want it. How wonderful!!!!!

The only thing is our speed…my Fritzbox only shows a DSL speed of 224kb/s, which is damn slow! It doesn’t feel that slow during surfing the web, but a speedtest online even said we have 185kb/s (down). That would be like twice the speed of an old fashioned dial up modem. Our upstream is around 500kb/s.

The iinet lady asked if our modem is a ADSL2+ modem. Yes, it is, isn’t it? Is says it is ready for ADSL2+. Maybe my adapter from RJ45 to RJ12 is not supporting the speed? Anyone an idea?

In the DSL information it only says “ADSL (ITU G.992.1) Annex A”, not ADSL2+. Hm, I have no idea. I already tried to find out about the low speed after switching the Annex, but could not find anything helpful yet. A long day is over and I am glad that we got the internet to work…now we can surf in the garden and everywhere in and around the house. ;o)

Well, f we can use skype phone and all that fancy web2.0 stuff (videos, radio streams…) is another question.

I also got myself a sipgate number today (sipgate.de), which means I have a German phone number that is connected to my Australian phone which is plugged into my German DSL modem that is running under Australian conditions.
We don’t have a fixed phone line, but this number is like a fixed phone number. If you call from Germany it only cost you the same amount what you normally pay for a call in Germany. I know my parents can now call me for free, because they have a phone flatrate. Nathan tried to call the number from here to check if it is ringing and a voice said that the Australian (???) number is not available at the moment, which made me wonder, if my set up was right.
Well, tomorrow I will do a test call with my dad and see how it goes.

Good night from a happy online-at-home Cola.

What happened in the new house so far (pics!)

January 21, 2009 - A-life & Australia & ENGLISH - (4) COMMENTs

The university opened again and we finally have access to use the internet and the offices (library) again. Nathan is very busy with his projects and in between the little free time (even if Nathan says there is no free time for him) we are going shopping for house stuff (still).
The last weeks went by very fast but we got a lot of stuff for the house together.

First of all, we live now here:

With a real lawn backyard (our last house had fake grass):

…but I tell you, keeping a lawn green and healthy looking is one of the hardest tasks here…the grass is mostly yellow and feels like hay under your feet…so dry!
By law it is only allowed to water your garden on one special day a week. The day is mentioned in the daily newspaper (which we don’t buy, achem). We have no clue how much we pay for our water, but it feels like we spray a bunch on our dried out lawn and it won’t do anything. This is a part of our (also quite large) front yard:

The backdoor and small terrace:

We still need a table top for the table bottom that we have and then we can enjoy our meals outside.

Nathan could not resist and bought us a second car (1984, 85000km, great on fuel):

For better dimensions…

We drove this little thing down south on our Christmas trip. The other weeks it just refused to work and now it sits in the drive way and Nathan took the engine apart…broken head gasket. Well, but this is another story…

When we are hanging out inside it can look like this

and you can see me mostly doing this

Enjoying our 1960ies kitchen style with this weird but kind of cool glass cabinet (perfect for Nathan’s glass work to present):

Some of you said, it takes up to three months, until you have your new household together in a new country. Here is a list of what we got together in the last weeks:

I mentioned the washing machine in one of the last posts already, here is a picture of the “gold piece”:

Nathan got a lot of furniture and stuff for free (as usual)…all in a very good condition. Chairs, tables, and beautiful white wooden blinds that we like to use instead of the ugly vertical blinds that came with the house.

We found a very nice wardrobe that we bought from the Quokka (ad paper) from an old lady who told us that her aunt, who owned it for a long time, would have been 100 years these days. The wardrobe is from 1941 and is a special piece compared to a lot of other old furniture that we looked at. Here it is:

Not a tall boy, but we found a beautiful antique (1940ies) chest of drawers. We bought it from an old guy who had his garage full with old stuff. We love buying from these old pals and we like buying character furniture made of solid quality wood!

Then I thought I found the sofa bed from Ikea that I wanted, for a bargain, also in the Quokka. We were lucky to spontaneously get a ute (truck) to borrow from Nathan’s work. Then we drove about 45 minutes to the address and when we saw the sofa bed sitting on their front porch I thought *yukk* that is not a “vgc” meaning very good condition as it was advertised. This sofa is good for the tip!! The white cover was supposed to be beige and in a clean condition. I couldn’t believe how the guy really thought his sofa bed was in a very good condition. I didn’t even want to touch it. It had nasty stains and dog hairs all over, the whole piece was loose and partly broken. There were cob webs all over. We saw a water damage has happened, the storage box for underneath the sofa was lying down in broken parts….what did this guy tell me on the phone? No pets, very good condition, I don’t even need to buy a new cover, because everything is fine…arse! He really wanted $200 for it. His model was aprox. 10 years old. I would not have taken it for free! Disgusting! What a fraud! Next time I know what other questions I need to ask on the phone…but if people lie to me there is nothing I can do.

Besides furniture I also finally bought a second frying pan. A small non-stick frying pan from “Tefal” (actually made in France, not Germany what I expected)…I could convince Nathan that stainless steel frying pans are not great for everything (for example eggs!) and the non-stick coating of the Tefal is not Teflon (are you confused? hehe), which he wouldn’t accept in our house (Teflon is evil, ya know?). He really started to love the small Tefal… Cool For my homies…the small 20cm frying pan cost $50 instead of $80 and was the cheapest frying pan in the ‘nice’ kitchen store. Of course you can buy a $5 one at Ikea, but with the cheapest coating on it…whatever that is. In my preferred kitchen warehouse they even said that Tefal is the cheapest brand they stock. I was surprised and know that Tefal has a good reputation in Germany and pots and pans are rather expensive than the cheapest you can get. Other country-things are different. Anyway, I love our new little fry pan!

Not so important, but exciting as well, because it has to do with FOOD. :P We bought two pizza baking tins, so that we can finally bake again our gluten-free Pizza, as we did in our old house, where the Pizza baking form was not mine. With these round baking tins the pizza always comes out great. Since our oven didn’t have a baking tray I also needed to get one….for my cookies for instance. Hehe!

Ah, and I also bought a nice bread knife…brand = Bismarck. In the shop they said it is a German brand…I’ve never bought a knife in my life so far, so I didn’t know it. But it is great. Got it for $35 instead of $70. It was the second cheapest knife in the kitchen store, but I think I never had such a good bread knife. Cool!

We still don’t have a mattress, because first we didn’t have time to look around and then we need to find one that suits us both. Not as easy as plugging your nose.
We have a very thoughtful friend who one night knocked on our door, when Nathan and I were just talking (aka arguing) about our mattress problem.
She couldn’t see us sleeping on our thin single piece of foam anymore and brought us her air mattress in queen size, which is about 30 cm thick (like yours, Sis). Unfortunately we don’t sleep very well on it. Nathan even said it is worse than on the small foam, but at least we have more space now. Every second night we have to carry it out to the car to pump it up via the cigarette lighter. There are worse things in life, but we are sooo ready for a real comfy mattress and a good night’s sleep without waking up a few times.

What we still need and hunt for:
A mattress, a sofa (best would be a sofa bed), the internet, a lawn mower or whipper snipper (funny name for the petrol driven device that cuts the lawn’s edges), two bed side tables, two bar stools, maybe another lamp for the living room and a table top for our garden terrace table.

We are nearly there…after not even two months! Not too bad, isn’t it? 8)

# U P D A T E:

We finally bought/ordered our mattress last week and we can pick it up this Saturday! Yay! I cannot wait for a good nights sleep!

We also finally found a sofa. Double Yeah!!
That was more by chance. We went to an IGA supermarket and on the way out we stopped at the notice board to have a quick read of the sales ads. One of the ads had the sofa that I recognised from my home in Germany, my Ikea couch! Karlstad! (the name of the couch) It was advertised for $200 only. That’s a bargain (the sofa is aroung $700 new). I called the person, heard that the sofa is only 10 months old, and asked to have a look at it.
Unfortunately the cover of the sofa was sprinkled with quite a few stains (and he answered my question if there are any stains “not really”).
They had a child; that explains why. We left with saying that we will think about it.

In the end, after another used sofa that I was trying to get has already been sold, we thought about the good deal (only $200), and the very comfortable couch that I know from years of usage back in Germany, so we decided to buy it. Even that it has no bed function. Well, you can’t have everything, I guess. Nathan said, if we find a sofa bed we can still try to fit in our second bedroom.

People who know me, know that I haggle (schachern). Of course, I didn’t want to pay $200 for the stained sofa. The covers are not washable, only dry cleanable, therefore I offered him $150 (I figured a dry clean will be at least $50). Another of my arguments was that we have to borrow a ute (Truck) to transport the large sofa.
After a few negotiations, and another deep talk with his wife, he called me back and said that we could buy it for $150. Great!
I called my friend K. to ask her if I can borrow her ute, and luckily she was home and said yes.
An hour later we had a sofa at home. A very comfortable one. The cushions are like new, it is just the smell….we definately need the dry clean!
Here is a picture of the new sofa and our lounge are, which is now almost complete:

The last week was very productive in house terms, because we also ordered the internet! Finally! It was very annoying and often difficult to organise to always drive the 30 minutes to the university to use the internet there, and then they even closed down completely (no access) from Christmas to the 8th of January! We became members of the library nearby but then their opening hours often collided with our free time…and so on.
Now this will have an end and freedom is on its way…we will be connected with the internet juice next Tuesday. I hope I can get my German DSL modem running…so far I still need at least one adapter that I haven’t found yet.

Thanks for reading until the end of this unexpected long posting…
I will try to blog more often (I don’t know how often I already promised that…sorry…internet is on its way to Cola house…please be patient dear friends, family and silent readers…)

We are very much enjoying our new home (besides the cockroach beasts…*g*)!
Another step towards feeling more settled in Perth, Australia. Yay!

Das war 2008

January 8, 2009 - Australia & DEUTSCH & Questions&Answers - (1) COMMENT

Zugenommen oder abgenommen?
Aufgrund einer strengen und umfangreichen (Nahrungsmittel-) Diaet relativ stark abgenommen. Seit der stetigen Bekochung durch Herrn Natey und des gemeinsamen Speisens ist meine auessere Erscheinung jedoch wieder im Rahmen.

Haare länger oder kürzer?
Ich war mutig und hab mir meine lange Haarmaehne im August abschneiden lassen.

Kurzsichtig oder Weitsichtig?
Ich trage meine Brille so gut wie nie, aber witzigerweise gerade jetzt, wo ich den Beitrag hier schreibe. Ich brauche die Brille eigentlich nicht (laut Augenarzt); finde es manchmal aber entspannter fuer die Augen, wenn ich lange vor dem Computer sitze oder im Dunkeln Auto fahre.

Mehr ausgegeben oder weniger?
Definitiv mehr, aufgrund des Umzugs von Deutschland nach Australien.

Mehr bewegt oder weniger?
Ich haette gerne mehr bewegt, aber andere wuerden wohl sagen, ich haette 2008 viel bewegt.

Der hirnrissigste Plan?
Zu glauben, dass mir die (Traum-)Jobs hier nur so zufliegen wuerden und dass es einfach sei, den Wunschjob zu bekommen, da man ja als Deutsche eh nen guten Ruf hat und dann mit nem ueberdurchschnittlichen Master im Medienbereich, super Englischkenntnissen und nem unbeschraenktem 3-Jahresvisum haette ich bessere Chancen.
Es ist hier wohl so wie ueberall anders auch: viel Bemuehung und harte Arbeit, die richtige Taktik samt Ueberzeugungskraft (und halt alles auf Englisch), eine ordentliche Portion Glueck und auch hier jede Menge “Vitamin B” und zur richtigen Zeit am richtigen Ort sein. Dennoch fuehlt sich alles etwas relaxter an, was aber die “Zusage” nicht unbedingt einfacher macht.

Die gefährlichste Unternehmung?
Ich weiss, was ihr denkt: Australien mit den vielen gefaehrlichen Tierchen seine neue Heimat zu nennen.
Ich denke aber eher: 30 Minuten ohne Sonnencreme auf der Haut in der australischen Sonne. Holla-die-Waldfee!

Der beste Sex?
Draussen…an einem wunderschoenen Ort in Mutter Natur, in ein paar Hundert Metern Hoehe above see level, sehr nahe eines Abhangs.

Die teuerste Anschaffung?
Ich wollte ja fast sagen, mein Visum, aber dafuer musste ich ja nichtmal was bezahlen (ich Glueckskind, ich weiss)…hmm..dann wohl meine erste down under gekaufte feine Business-Hose…es musste schnell gehen und ich wusste anfangs noch nicht, wo man gut aber etwas guenstiger fuer Businesskleidung einkaufen gehen kann.

Das leckerste Essen?
Selbstgekocht von Nathan. Da faellt mir kein Bestimmtes ein, die waren alle toll. Besonders das “New England Boiled Dinner”; ein im Ofen geschmorter Schweinebraten mit Kartoffeln, Moehren, Kohl und Kuerbis. Ansonsten waren wir oft bei Hanami in der Beaufort Street unsere Leibspeise Sushi essen.

Das beeindruckendste Buch?
Ich habe 2008 nicht viel gelesen und wirklich beeindruckend war keines.

Der berührendste Film?
Ohjee, mein Gedaechtnis. Wir sind DVD-Gucker und haben fast jeden Abend nen Film gesehen…viel SciFi, Horror, Thriller und Action…also eher weniger beruehrend, dafuer eher aufregend. Ach ne, da war doch was…ich fand “The Pianist” sehr beruehrend!!

Die beste CD?
Wir besitzen keine CDs hier in Perth. Wir haben nicht mal nen CD-Player (ausser unseren Laptops). Meine CD Sammlung ist in Deutschland geblieben. Wir hoeren vorwiegend Nathan’s ipod-Musik und Radio. Es gibt einige sehr gute Radiokanaele hier. Die Auswahl ist auch wesentlich groesser als von zuhause gewohnt. Aus dem Radio droehnt bei uns meist Klassik, Oldies und Countrymusik…der ipod bietet ne gute Portion Rock, hiphop, electronic und Chilloutmusi.

Das schönste Konzert?
Keins besucht. Waere aber mal was, vor allem, weil es hier viele Moeglichkeiten in Perth gibt.

Die meiste Zeit verbracht mit …?
Herrn Natey. Das ich das mal sagen kann…toll!

Die schönste Zeit verbracht mit …?
Familie und besten Freunden in den letzten Wochen vor Abflug nach down under und den Rest des Jahres dann mit dem Mann des Cola-Herzens.

Vorherrschendes Gefühl 2008?
Aufregend, hastig, anstrengend.

2008 zum ersten Mal getan?
Ausgewandert, Yoga, “auf Englisch” gearbeitet und Geld verdient.

2008 nach langer Zeit wieder getan?
Geflogen, Gekuesst (nach fast 8 Monaten des Nichtkuessens) und weitere hier nicht nennenswerte Intimitaeten ausgetauscht, im Winter in den Ozean gesprungen (haha), mit ner 64k-lahmen Verbindung durchs Internet gesurft.

3 Dinge, auf die ich gut hätte verzichten können?
Die im Fruehjahr festgestellte Laktoseintoleranz,
die allabendliche Froesteln und aufgrund abgefrorener Fuesse nicht Einschlafen koennen in unserem alten Haus in der Walcott Street,
das Abhandenkommen meines Portemonaies inklusive saemtlicher wichtiger Ausweise und Karten.

Die wichtigste Sache, von der ich jemanden überzeugen wollte?
Das das mit down under klappen wird und es mir dort (gesundheitlich und seelisch) besser gehen werde.

Das schönste Geschenk, das ich jemandem gemacht habe?
#ironie an# Endlich ein freies Haus zum Vermieten fuer meine Eltern. #ironie aus#

Das schönste Geschenk, das mir jemand gemacht hat?
Mein australisches Visum und die Unterstuetzung in saemtlichen Belangen durch meine Eltern.

Der schönste Satz, den jemand zu mir gesagt hat?
Der erste war bestimmt: “Welcome to Perth, honey!” *g*

Der schönste Satz, den ich zu jemandem gesagt habe?
Ha, vielleicht dieser? “You smell very delicious.” Hab ich zu ner Arbeitskollegin gesagt, was ein Auftakt fuer unsere jetzige gute Freundschaft war. Der Duft, bzw. das Parfum, das sie trug hiess witzigerweise “Be Delicious” und noch eigenartiger war, dass eine Freundin, ohne es zu wissen, mir kurze Zeit spaeter dieses Parfum als Geschenk aus Deutschland geschickt hatte. Sachen gibts!!

2008 war mit einem Wort …?
Anstrengend.

[gemopst bei Pia]