Couldn’t be happier with your content (CBS & STS), and I’ve never had a problem accessing the premium materials. You and your team are totally inspiring. Because of you and CBS, my family and I, took our first trip to Spain this year (it was wonderful). Keep up your absolutely fantastic work!

Sincerely,
Tim
Mauston, WI, USA

Congratulations on your French programs — I am learning a lot. I’ve just watched wtlf no. 8 and felt that there was a bit too much time looking at your electronic blackboard rather than the posters and the delightfully animated host. The billboards of Paris should be the main focus of that module.

But keep up the good work. I’m not really surprised to learn that you have outgrown your server.

I read your message in its entirety when I first received it, and understood there would be some problems, perhaps even some that might not even be discovered until after the migration. Since no big company can even get it “right” (that includes Microsoft, Apple, and many more) I did not have expectations of perfection. I knew to be patient.

After all, in life, anything that is good is worth waiting for and STS is no exception. Sorry for some of the short comments over here; perhaps it is easier for me to be patient, knowing that I never have and never will be perfect, myself.

In addition, I realize full well that I won’t be learning to speak decent Spanish in one day, or in one week, or in one year. But in the year I’ve been along for the RLN ride with CBS and STS, I’ve come a LONG way. So a short delay is not a serious problem at all, IMO.

Thank you for your efforts and hard work. There are those of us out here who recognize and appreciate it. I’ll be back to buy when the time comes. You’ll make good for me and for anyone else who has paid for premium content.

Regards from the US.

PS: I work in networking, hardware, and IT. There is no such thing as perfection among machines, both hard and soft. To my personal experience, there is no such thing as a perfect human being either… just understanding, hard working, ethical ones that stand out from time to time. Carry on.

As I explained in the post above, we are not a huge company with a technical department, so the tweaks and adjustments which have been made are done as a result of testing ourselves and the reports we receive from users about how the system is functioning. Every user is working on a different system, different OS, some using iTunes, some using other podcast aggregators, and some users download content from the website. It’s very difficult to account for every possible system, so it’s only through reports from users that we can troubleshoot.

@Julie – I’ve replied to your email and fixed the bug which was stopping the download links appear on the website.

@ninivaggi – I’ve looked in our system and I don’t see any support query from you following your recent purchase. We have fixed the issues which have arisen with the migration and you should be able to download the content assuming you’re using the correct feeds – see below. Our process is secure – we use secure servers for the entire log-in process and all members’ pages are behind SSL. All payments are processed by our payment partners, Paypal Pro and Google Checkout and these processes are fully secure. No payment details are kept on our servers, and any personal data which is stored on the site (eg. usernames, passwords, etc) are behind the secure layer.

@robinm – Thank you very much for reporting back. We’re delighted things are working for you.

@Jim – Things should be working – see below for full details.

@John – You should have received my emails from the support service.

Accessing the premium feeds

As we migrated all our content to the new servers, the premium feeds were redirecting through the old server in order to avoid problems for existing users. It turned out, however, that this meant that the databases and permissions on the old server and new server were not identical, therefore causing problems for some users, particularly those who had purchased previously from the system, and then made a new purchase under the system.

We completely rewrote all the premium feeds, using the updated server. You must make sure that you’re using the new feeds. These are on the radiolingua.com server, not the rlnvault.com server. We’ve changed the name of the feed from RLN Coffee Break… to RLN * Coffee Break… (ie. an asterisk between RLN and the podcast title).

The premium feeds are stored on http://radiolingua.com/thevault/premiumfeeds/ and the feed title will come after that, eg. sts-01-premium.xml etc. The crucial bit is the radiolingua.com bit – the rlnvault.com feeds will not work for all users.

I hope this helps to explain – I’ve gone through this with everyone who has contacted the helpdesk.

If you have a support query, PLEASE use the helpdesk at support@radiolingua.com so that your question is entered into the system. I will answer your question as soon as possible.

It’s such a shame that you haven’t been able to professionalize your security and access issues, as I do enjoy the free podcasts. Keep up the good work but please fix this first!

Robin

Robin