Tough Start of 2019
Le VPN team has been very busy this first quarter of 2019, first setting up all the users that moved to our Le VPN service from My Private Network, and second – fixing all the bugs that were getting reported by thousands of new users (Thank you!) and improving our apps and service fast, fast, fast!! So no holidays for the dev team…
Our Client Services team was doing an outstanding job to accommodate the tropical rain of support requests during that busy time of MPN users integration and as they were doing the impossible to cut down their response time, it still sometimes went up to the never-seen-before 24 hours, which made some users pretty unhappy… Our support team doubled just before (sorry the newcomers for the rough welcome to the team!) but still… no weekends for the support team..
And if that wasn’t enough, a Big British media Company started regularly blocking all the VPN providers (like at least once a week and on a Friday night when “normal” people are off to TGIF fun) and Le VPN service was obviously on their radar, so our UK media users who had Le VPN installed on their smart TVs, Amazon Firesticks, etc… well, we won’t repeat what they were saying in the hours that followed… 🙂 Definitely made us hurry up to fix it!
Good News: We Survived! 🙂
Good news: we worked really hard to overcome these bumps on the road… and we tried not to take it too close to heart when rotten tomatoes were thrown at us over app reviews and social media since we knew that we could do better. So we just kept on fixing, testing, upgrading, releasing, upgrading again and most importantly – listening to your feedback and letting our users guide us where our priorities should be!
So what changed? Besides the improved apps for all the major operating systems: Windows, Mac, Android and iOS (those tech updates are boring and you can find them in the “What’s New” section of each app, so we skip them here since the dev team never reads this blog 🙂 so no one will complain.. ); we have also significantly improved other parts of our service:
Top 5 upgrades in Le VPN service in the first quarter of 2019
1. Reinforced UK segment with faster and more reliable servers in different locations in the UK.
We’ve tested over 50 VPN and 10 SmartDNS servers in five different data centers in the UK to find the best fit for our users. We have now deployed the best options in terms of speed and reliability in London and Kent, and you will find them updated in the servers’ list in Le VPN app and in your SmartDNS service.
2. New methods to unblock one Big British media Company and other media with minimum downtime if any.
Our tech team tested different methods how to fight these regular waves of blocking coming from the most-watched British media and how to automate it, so that our users experience a very short downtime (if any) and that our team can sleep at night (or have a beer on Friday night) instead of fighting off another wave of geoblocking. These new methods are deployed and working, and getting more sophisticated by the day (our geeks like to geek out… try and stop them now…)
3. Brand new SmartDNS service, now in 9 countries (instead of 3).
Our SmartDNS service has been significantly improved by the demand of MPN users who were used to MyTelly (SmartDNS service by My Private Network, which is now a part of Le VPN).
This new SmartDNS service was tailored to your needs in real-time based on all the feedback that we received, and now unblocks media not only in the US, UK, and France but also in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, and Switzerland! Its dedicated UK servers were relocated to another data center in the UK for the best stability and speed (and all your British media streaming needs…).
Check the updated list of all SmartDNS channels on this page. Reminder: All the channels on our SmartDNS list are also working with HybridVPN!
4. Updates in Le VPN apps & video tutorials of manual installation.
Lots of things have been improved across all major operating systems: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS. If you experiencing any issues with Le VPN app, please make sure that you use the latest version! You can download the latest app version in your Client Area or on this page: www.le-vpn.com/start/
There are some locations, though, where a manual VPN installation is a better option, and it is available with Le VPN service as well. It is not so obvious to set up to some not-techy users, so we took the time to create video tutorials to walk you through the installation. You will find them all on our YouTube channel and also in our Knowledgebase on the website. Here are some examples:
L2TP installation on Windows 10
More video tutorials are coming soon! Follow Le VPN on YouTube to get notified.
5. Amazon FireStick app in beta-testing.
Our developers adapted our Android app to Amazon FireStick and Fire TV after we learned that many of you are relying on us for this service. This new version of the app is currently in testing and we will be releasing it shortly. If you need it now and are willing to test its beta-version, please reach out to our Support team.
Tell us how we can improve Le VPN service for you!
So, what do you think? Is there anything we missed and that should have been our priority RIGHT NOW? Let us know in comments or take a 2-minute survey here and tell us all!
Thank you for using Le VPN and for sticking with us despite all the bumps on the road! We are here listening to your requests and we won’t let you down!
Our Le VPN service upgrade work is not over and we are busy improving our VPN network and our service even further to make sure that you enjoy the Internet by Your Own Rules! Not a client yet? Try Le VPN with 7-day MoneyBack guarantee by subscribing below!
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Comments (14)
In the first days/weeks after the change from MPN service here wasn’t too great, hopefully that’s all behind us now and things will continue on the right footing for the future!
Thank you Theresa! We’re doing everything to keep you happy! 🙂
I have to say the service has improved wonderfully in a short time. Praise be to the tech’s thanks for you hard work Le VPN and all who sail in her .
Thank you John! We’ll pass your message to the tech team, they’ll be happy to hear it 🙂
It has been an appalling experience. My Private Network selling to you, coincided with my having to visit two hospitals a day, visiting my spouse and mother in different places by public transport as I suffered a huge cardiac arrest last June which does not able me to drive yet. Arriving back in the evening English TV is my one relaxation. The connection has been awful, especially to the BBC, cutting me off and saying it is not available in my area, being Tenerife, The Canary Islands. With My Private network they would take over my computer and correct any problem I had. With you there was a list of instructions which I could not understand or follow. I have given up. I am an old man and have given up complaining and after months I get disconnected all the time, I get 200 MB which should be sufficient but when connected to you it goes down to below 10, hopeless. It would seem you as a company have taken on more than you can cope with. If I had not prepaid for a year and expect I would get no refund, I would have left.
A ghastly and frustrating experience and it seems you have had enormous problems with many people and I doubt whether you will publish this.
Dear John,
We are sorry to hear about your negative experience switching from MPN to our service, and the difficult circumstances in your life that coincided with this switchover!
We see that you have been able to successfully connect to our VPN service since then (almost 700 times!) and successfully encrypt your Internet connection with our VPN service for over 487 hours, and we are sorry to hear that you still feel frustrated about us. 🙁
To answer your questions:
There were indeed a few cases like yours where it was difficult for the users coming from MPN to change their VPN installation to our servers because of the manual setup, and we tried our best to explain the most comprehensively how to do it or provide an easier alternative solution (our app which is easy to use and works perfectly!). According to our records (unless the Support team is hiding some skeletons in the closet… ), all the users got our help and managed to connect successfully, and those who were pretty negative or skeptical about our service at first have changed their mind (Thank you!).
1. Client support by overtaking a client’s computer:
Unfortunately, we do not offer live support via TeamViewer that would overtake your computer and install our software for you.
First of all, for a security reason. Our VPN service is all about security and privacy of our users, and “overtaking” their computer goes against that policy. MPN informed us about this practice in the past (something they did exceptionally) and they knew that this will not be possible when their users will integrate our VPN service since it is against our policy.
Secondly, this type of client support is not a part of our business model as we would not be able to provide a quality VPN service for such a low subscription fee if our team had to manually install it for each user. For example, if you look at the biggest companies out there with a similar business model selling subscription services for around $10/month like Netflix, Spotify, etc. – you will hardly even find how to reach their support team via a ticket system, and definitely no live chat, and absolutely no live support of overtaking a user’s computer to help him or her login and use the service. So we do go an extra mile to help thousands and thousands of our users via a transparent ticketing system and a live chat on our website available most of the daytime in the European timezone 7 days a week. And we are sorry that you feel that it is not enough.
2. UK media disruptions
As we’ve mentioned in our story above, we experienced numerous waves of blocks from various British media. It is a new thing in the VPN industry and that is why many VPN providers are closing down, as they don’t have the technical capacity to deal with it on a regular basis. On our side, we have a strong in-house tech team who solved it in a matter of hours when it first happened and have now automated the process, so that if it is down – it is a matter of minutes or seconds, and almost unnoticeable for the users.
If you are still experiencing issues with accessing your favorite media channels, please reach out again to our support team.
3. Using SmartDNS not to compromise connection speeds.
We are releasing a video tutorial on how to configure a SmartDNS on your computer which also unblocks a huge list of British media (and 8 other countries) without having to connect your VPN which can indeed slow down your connection for some locations and some internet service providers. The advantage of using a SmartDNS is that is doesn’t slow down your connection speed as there’s no encryption, so it can be a perfect solution for you!
Best regards,
Le VPN team
I am one of the people who has had intermittent problems, only with BBC. Has been fine last couple of days. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for your comment Jacqueline! Our team is on it and only getting better! We’ll do our best to keep you happy! 🙂
I was a MPN customer for many years and have nothing but praise for them. I was really concerned when they informed me of the change over. But I need not have been as it was an almost smooth seamless transition. Any problems were solve almost immediately – so thank you to all at LE VPN and MPN for their continued support. Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Mandy! We’re so happy to hear that the transition was almost seamless for you! We’ll do our best not to disappoint you!
because I wrote truthful comment on what has happened to me yo have now shut me down
Dear John,
We did not shut you down, your service is active and fully functional. Please reach out to our Support team and let them know what happened so that they can help.
It’s been very interesting to read this blog and the comments. Yes, I too had a lot of frustration after the transfer from MPN, though some of this was undoubtedly specific to being in China. Anyway, for the last few weeks, LeVPN has been working very well – for which, many thanks and congratulations!
Thank you Philip!