200: Not So - Off The Rails!

Topics:

-PsiMac is hiring! Judy offers up details about a full time consulting position at their Norwalk, CT office.

-Jerry, Joe & Sam get together for a rare in person show to celebrate 200 episodes and it goes...well it goes ok. We would like to thank our good friend Tom Bridge for putting us in touch with James Smith.  James was instrumental in making the show sound listenable after a very rough recording (it gets better about 20 minutes in).

-Jerry serenades the group and the audience at the opening of the show

-The team discusses a pre-show Google Hangout experience with some of our dedicated listeners

-A little reminiscing and trips down memory lane about the show's humble beginnings

-Down to business, Jerry goes in to a story about Gmail and Outlook 2011 security settings

-A dialogue opens up about cellular carriers and their plans.  And how to avoid higher chargers.

-Sam's daughter helps the CCP crew ring in show 200 with a batch of cupcakes

-Don't forget to join us at Aces Conference this year, where we will hold a very special live show!
www.acesconf.com

-Sam got hot under the collar dealing with a client's poor planning and working with another vendor

-One of Joe's show ideas, "Residential Roundtable" gets a conversation going

-After Joe brings up another show idea, Sam's back on the couch to talk about the need for office space.  Joe offers up some of his experiences in his years in his own space.

-Admin or no admin? That topic comes up again as a point of focus for the next hire in a small business.

-Access to our back catalog will now only be available to our Patreon sponsors.  Please take a moment to visit our Patreon site and consider contributing to the show.  Thanks for listening!

199: How Far Up The Dogpile?

Topics:

-Sam runs into a long on-site day with a stack of Mac mini servers

-Clients vary about how much sensitive data they choose share with their trusted consultants

-Phishing scams can prove to be difficult to completely resolve for clients

-AOL or not?  The crew is divided

-Jerry reminds us that email, contacts, & calendars seems to be a area that constantly requires training

-A frustrating client tests Joe.  It leads to a further discussion about dealing with difficult clients.

-Sam has some follow up on the AutoMounter product he found from the App Store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/automounter/id1160435653?mt=12

194: Blowing Up Your Zendesk Tickets

Topics:

Sam's team worked on a 27" mid-2011 iMac with surprising results.  Could it have been the drive enclosure this whole time?

-Friend of the show Mike Dent (@mcdent) of Ubertechs provides some insight on his experiences using a different drive enclosure:  https://www.zapals.com/akasa-ak-hda-03-black-2-5-to-3-5-ssd-hdd-adapter.html
-Equally important is the thermal sensor: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMACHDD11/

The rates conversation is revisited with each of the hosts bringing up their model for attracting MSP clients while not shying away from those "break/fix" clients.

Sam brings up a quick option to use Apple's Volume Purchase Program to purchase an app for a client when no credit card was on file.

While on the subject, he brings up a great little product for keeping volumes mounted even when the disconnect unexpectedly.  AutoMounter: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/automounter/id1160435653?mt=12

An old favorite FTP app called Rumpus: 

Joe found an intriguing (and possibly dangerous) problem with power adapters for an iPad in the office.

During a slow period, Jerry shares his thoughts on Watchman monitoring and ZenDesk integration and particularly how to turn them in to billable work with clients.

Jerry found an odd Apple Mail issue where it was slow to launch.  Keychain related?

Sam shares a great tip about how to login to a non-admin account on a Mac when the screen is locked...only to find that this feature does not function in Sierra!  Thanks to Kevin Ginger for the quick research.
-https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/21385/unlock-standard-user-s-screensaver-as-admin-broken-in-10-12

Joe's client has an issue where Safari would not load any websites.  The fix related to reinstalling the Security Update 2016-003 Supplemental (10.11.6).

Little Flocker is highly recommended from Jerry for detecting and protecting a Mac from malware and other security concerns: https://www.littleflocker.com.  Comes from the mind of Jonathan Zdziarski https://www.zdziarski.com/blog/

Jerry experiences a "wonky" iPhone search issue.

Sam encounters an odd situation with static DNS values ending up in his network settings after visiting a client.  Jerry chimes in with the possibility of a hacked router.  Sam will follow up on that on a future show.

As a special bonus, Jerry shares a great kitchen tool called the Rapid Egg Cooker: http://amzn.to/2lsJaJb

193: Uncle Jimmy's Search Bar & Selfie Of Ulysses

Are there any CCP listeners out there that are not a members of the Apple Consultants Network? We would love to hear from you. Tell us your story!

Topics:

Joe gets a juicy emergency support job and shares the details with us.  It brings about a discussion on surcharges and fees.

Friend of the show David Sparks comes up in conversation as the guys kick around details of contract agreements with clients.

The age old MSP & billing discussion gets kicked around, as it does on occasion.  

While on the topic of the MSP model, we all chime in about an incredible product to manage your fleet of Macs, Addigy.  Give it a test drive by visiting http://www.addigy.com/cmd-ctrl-pwr

Sam brings up a "break/fix" client that wants immediate responses but doesn't want the commitment.

Sam shares an almost unbelievable story of a client that had random photos appear in her Photos library only to find that someone had been signing in to an iPhone using her Apple ID (photo below).

192: Calendar Bankruptcy & Skunky Third Party Memory

- We're sponsored this week by:

Watchman Monitoring, a favorite tool of ours that should be in every professional consultant's toolkit.

You can visit WatchmanMonitoring.com/cmdctrlpwr and sign up for your free trial to find out how Watchman Monitoring can keep an eye on your client machines and notify you of over 100 issues. Be sure to tweet @cmdctrlpwr #CCPsentme to support the show!

TOPICS:

Joe describes his tough day with a client router failing.  PSA: Check your network equipment warranties!

As Joe brings up how great iCloud has been, Sam tells a personal story of woe about syncing issues.  Joe & Jerry offer free consulting advice.

Resetting network settings in iOS resolved an issue for Sam where a user had fiddled with many settings, including which apps operate over cellular.

Joe has some follow up about his fix for removing incompatible extensions in the last show.

A story of another great win for our pals at Watchman Monitoring & Gruntwork!

Sam presents a real head scratcher of a case where an iMac spontaneously kicks the user out of their session and goes back to the login window.  Any suggestions?

Billing and discounts is a common discussion in our world, and Joe recalls some handy tips for showing clients your appreciation.

While on the subject, Sam had a recent need to increase rates for clients and recounts one particular story with a client.

Jerry encounters a situation we have all probably dealt with, when clients attempt to glean as much information from you as possible in an attempt to "do it yourself".

Jerry's client has some challenges working with external displays alongside the new 13" MacBook Pros.

Use the LG UltraFine 4K Display with your MacBook or MacBook Pro
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207447

Use the LG UltraFine 5K Display with your Mac
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207448

191: Cause & Effect

Jerry had more than one instance of clients with Airports requiring a firmware update to version 7.7.8 due to portables not connecting properly. 

Continuing on the wifi discussion, Sam discusses testing Ubiquiti access points at a residential client by temporarily running ethernet throughout the house to determine permanent locations.

Sam had the daunting task of giving an internet safety presentation at a middle school in the area.  Helpful hint: bribe them with Jolly Ranchers.

Temporary tattoos!  An anonymous listener kindly donates these temporary tattoos to the gang at CCP.  

Joe runs in to a startup issue after migrating a client to a new iMac.  Joe finds that adding /Library/Extensions to his troubleshooting process will help diagnose similar issues.
https://www.justinsilver.com/technology/os-x-el-capitan-10-11-1-hanging-on-boot-fixed/

Webex causes Sam some grief as the installer silently fails when attempting to install the plug-in.  The fix is created a missing folder:  ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12578216/cant-installrun-webex-my-mac

Sierra Logs rehash: https://eclecticlight.co

Sam goes back on the psychiatrist couch to discuss working with a client when you have a personal relationship.

ARD - /var/folders & /var/db - Locations that are handy when troubleshooting or grabbing settings for ARD.