433: Part 2 with Tim Nyberg of The MacGuys+

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Topics:

-Joe ponders the question, what about requiring a monthly plan?

-Everyone debates the merits of a managed services only approach.

-One of Jerry’s customers mistakenly deleted mass amounts of Gmail data synced with Apple Mail. Retrieval wasn’t a simple solution due to how Google “labels” items in comparison to folders in Apple Mail.

-One of Tim’s clients that stored everything in Apple Mail had a catastrophic issue.

-Is Apple Mail a professional mail client? The ongoing debate continues.

-Backupify offers native server side backups for Google and Microsoft 365. 

-Backblaze affiliate accounts can be an additional revenue stream for consultants.

-Alerting customers to issues that come from services like Watchman Monitoring is one thing. But getting them to take action is another.

345: Taekwondo MSP

Topics:

-Sam is on the island of Manhattan teaching a Jamf class

-He also has an update to the issues affecting him since upgrading to Catalina, including the loss of iCloud reminders.

-Besides blocking Catalina with Addigy and other MDM solutions, ignoring Catalina in Software Update is a good addition: sudo softwareupdate —ignore “macOS Catalina”

-Sam describes frustrations when attempting to set up voice recognition using “Hey Siri” on his HomePod

-Making a push through Addigy is a focus Sam Is trying to make a priority in 2020

-A bug in Safari with Addigy is properly displaying APNs Push Certificate expiration dates.  Other browsers work as expected.

-Joe has had success with clients using secure passwords with the strong password feature in Safari

-Follow up to Joe’s SIM hacking issue with his client - the department that handles issues with porting at Verizon is the Unauthorized Port Team

-A client that Sam parted ways with had decided to fight his final bill so a mutually agreed upon number

-Sam decided to add verbiage to his MSP that ensures his company is always involved in the decision making for technology related purchases

-A big thank you to Richard Wingfield and Justin Esgar for solid advice in Sam updating his MSP agreement

-New billing practices, additional details, and per user/per device pricing are some of the changes and updates that are being planned out

-The next trick is to find the time to implement all of these changes

338: Merry & Bright With Addigy

Topics:

-The crew does an Addigy check up to see where they stand with managed clients 

 -Joe brands his Addigy restart scripts after the show and it’s a top rated download!

-Jerry & Joe consider adding snarky comments to their messages to users 

-Joe talks more about his fancy scripts like rebuilding the spotlight index and checking for download sizes
ls -lh /Library/Addigy/download-cache/downloading
The main part of Joe's script:
du -sh /Library/Addigy/download-cache/downloading | cut -f1,1

-TeamViewer’s version upgrades and the lack of ability to manage from an earlier version frustrates Joe

-Inside a scam call center by Jim Browning youtube channel that busts fake tech support scam centers: https://youtu.be/xb_rgQ4IDS8

-Joe complains that users will not accept Apple’s advice for strong passwords but will accept fake tech support scams. Jerry has a different take on the password feature. 

274: Back To The Future

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Topics:

-We take a trip down memory lane as we go back to a very early set of interviews from Apple Advanced Camp in Austin, TX 2013

-We also have a listener contribution from our friend from the Netherlands, Remie Cremers

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260: Live From ACES - "Joe Has Left The Building"

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Topics:

Command Control Power is live at the ACEs Conference in Baltimore Maryland!

-Special thanks to Justin Esgar for inviting us to be a part of ACEs

-Joe talks about the excellent start to the conference with yoga and the first session of the work/life balance with Melanie Curtis

-We are now at 260 shows and counting

-A shout out to Michael of Origin 84 listening live all the way from Australia

-A huge announcement from our very own Joe Saponare!  After much thought and planning, he is taking to the road with his wife Ashleigh.  They will be traveling in their camper van for the next year or so.  An amazing experience and we all wish them well.

-A question from the audience about Wi-Fi on the road.  Joe talks about his AT&T and Verizon connections via a bonded cellular router.  It brings to mind Al Franken on SNL.

-He will start by flying out to LA shortly and head off to the Pacific Northwest.

-Steve Sorbo offers an open invitation to visit him in Seattle

-Richard Wingfield asks how his clients are taking this.  Joe is taking an approach of giving certain clients a heads up but not making a big announcement as of yet.

-Live support!  Sam gets desperate texts from one of his employees during the live show.  He is in the weeds with a Synology migration.

-We are doing a new t-shirt campaign that will include our Patreon sponsors.  If you are not already a sponsor, visit https://www.patreon.com/cmdctrlpwr/memberships by June 1st to have your name on the shirt.

-Command Control Power announces that, thanks to the support of our listeners, we are now able to go sponsor free!

-Steve Sorbo mentions how much he enjoyed the show featuring Smith.ai

-If you have any suggestions for the show, please let us know

-Richard Wingfield discusses how the show acts as his psychiatrist 

-Jerry puts Allen Hancock on the spot and he discusses a new feature coming from Watchman Monitoring

-Joe made the move from Zendesk to RepairShopr

-Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network has advice about making major changes like a new website or infrastructure and time to estimate to get the job done

-Alex Narvey of Precursor Systems brings up his favorite tip from the show, unlocking a user's session with admin credentials.

Using your preferred command line text editor, edit /etc/pam.d/screensaver change: account required pam_group.so no_warn group=admin,wheel fail_safe to account sufficient pam_group.so no_warn group=admin,wheel fail_safe Back at the lock screen, hold down Option & Return and enter the username of an administrator and enter the password. You will be granted access to the logged in user session.

-Justin Esgar comes up to discuss the day 2 schedule for ACEs.  He also talks about the videos available to view all the amazing content from ACEs 2018 for just $299.  You can purchase them here: http://acesconf.com/video

-Sam briefly mentions his decision to sign a lease for office space in CT

259: Nana's Got A Bunch Of Reds In Her Basement

-This week we are proud to be sponsored by FLEXdesk, an offering from our friends at Rooted Consulting.  FLEXdesk - Help Desk support that grows with you

Topics:

-Sam starts the show by discussing a recent rate increase he is introducing

-Jerry discusses timing of rate hikes

-While on the topic, Sam shares a story about tough negotiations with a particular client

-After an announcement from CrashPlan ending PROe Server for Mac, Jerry has to take steps to keep his server up and running for clients using Parallels and Ubuntu

-A brief talk about storing data in the cloud and FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt)

-"All my data is gone" - Sam recalls a story where a client fiddled with equipment and caused a minor scare for herself

-After replacing macOS Server with a Synology, Sam gets the dreaded ticket to report that items are missing.  The story turns to an issue of illegal characters in filenames.  An old favorite called A Better Finder Rename is brought in to do mass renames on the server.

-The Synology discussion prompts Jerry to talk about types of drives used, including WD Reds and Seagate IronWolf.

-DAS PSA from Jerry about Drobo units and a run of bad power supplies

-Sam brings up a great blog discussion about APFS snapshots at the setup assistant thanks to a tip from Arek Dreyer https://smithjw.me/2018/04/23/APFS-Snapshots-Setup-Assistant/