For what it's worth

I wasted ages trying to get friends' Wanadoo broadband working again after changing the password.

First, we tried changing the password on their User Account panel, but it appeared to have failed. However, the old password wouldn't work either. So we called them, and Yes, the new password had been applied. Why wasn't it working? No idea. Checked every letter, and the initial capital. All fine.

But now no internet. After an awful lot of wasted time, I called them again and asked them to reset the password - to "Rotten" (my level of morale). They did (took ages) but still no luck. Then the agent suggested she reset it so that it was all-lower-case ("rotten"), and bingo - everything working again. Why did she suggest this? I suspect that Orange may know they have a problem here. Why can't they fix it, or at least warn users?

They tell you that passwords are case-sensitive, and allow you to set passwords with capitals in them - but then their system falls over when you try to apply those passwords. It may only apply to some setups (this was with a telephone-directory-sized Livebox) but to be on the safe side, my recommendation is always use lower-case-only passwords for Orange/Wanadoo.