356: The Mean Sister

Topics:

-Jerry starts a roundtable discussion about accessing remote computers using TeamViewer

-MDM has some answers but not everything is automated: https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-to-control-a-Mac-running-macOS-10-14-or-higher/ta-p/44699

-Joe talks about burning technical capital when working with a new client

-Some of these situations remind Sam about an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXWjyGP4KY

-Jerry & Joe don’t let Sam off the hook when attempting to clarify questions related to rogue MDM enrollment

-Nit wit, numbskull, imbecile - great descriptions for certain types of clients

-Joe uses the term “inelegant” to describe allowing remote access & MDM enrollment

-Moving away from the remote discussion, Sam decides to spin his own yarn about a Windows based client that caused a lot of grief for him and his team

-A good relationship can quickly turn uncomfortable when a problem is not resolvable in short order

-This problem manifested itself as slow internet speeds

-Sam finds multipe unmanaged switches hidden underneath desks

-Focusing on the ISP, they decide to switch to the backup ISP as the first priority and the cable ISP as the failover.  But the problems only get more complicated from there

-Both Joe & Jerry hone in on weather related issues with relation to Optimum Online and external lines

-What was the resolution?  Listen to find out!

355: Spreading The Love With Watchman Monitoring

Topics:

-Sam was on a Zoom conference with family and it could only be described as mayhem

-Jerry has a gripe about LinkedIn

-Command+Q and remote sessions

-Support call experience surveys set Jerry off

-Take out precautions as well as any other outside contact is discussed

-Joe wanted to know if Sam received responses from his newslette

-Sam has concerns about clients that may choose to suspend services, especially as his automated monthly invoices go out.

-Although it’s been discussed before Joe starts a dialogue about installing Watchman Monitoring in situations even when clients are not paying for ongoing services

-Jerry wonders about the value that clients may comprehend in something like Watchman Monitoring since it often times runs in the background

-Jerry’s not looking for trouble

-A client facing report is on Jerry’s wish list

-Sam gives Joe a shout out for a couple of scripts in Addigy that adjust Watchman Monitoring settings like Time Machine alerts (https://prod.addigy.com/#/macmanage/community/scripts/5ce312c25ff0a156d5654c24) and root capacity warnings (https://prod.addigy.com/#/macmanage/community/scripts/5ce3121c5ff0a156d55446b0)

-Watchman can now gather the correct age of a Mac computer since they had to make changes after Apple began randomizing serial numbers

-With users working from home, how are backups being handled?

-Joe recommends this G-Tech portable drive: 
https://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-G-Drive-Mobile-Portable-External/dp/B07DK2LPDD/?tag=cmdctrlpwr-20

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

354: This Is Not Snake Oil

Topics:

-Jerry talks of how business has slowed down for him since all of the recent events have occurred

-Joe has been busy setting up remote access for corporate clients and he hasn’t felt an impact as of yet

-Sam starts to broach the subject of maintaining security on home computers

-One of Sam’s client laid off 95% of their workforce 

-Projects have been put on hold

-How long will the shelter in place for the New York area last?

-An office move that Sam had referenced in the last episode is still going to move forward under special circumstances.  An HCS tech will arrive on site when nobody else is in the office in order to connect equipment.

-Jerry has retail clients that are cutting prices due to the times

-Could we learn something from retailers slashing prices?

-Jerry reminds us that we are relying on supplies from other countries like China, which could cause delays even if we do want to start projects.

-Sam ordered a new MacBook Air

-Simply asking is an approach that Joe says could speak a discussion for moving on work

-Jerry inquires about “Sam’s buddy” with the restaurant, who is surviving with curb side pick ups and delivery

-One of Jerry’s clients receives a very well done phishing scam that does a redirect through Microsoft One Drive.  Thankfully they caught it in time.  Jerry was surprised as to how casual the compromised vendor was about it.

-As the topic of newsletter and reaching out comes back up, Joe has some thoughts of dark web scanning and phishing tests.  Sam has some ideas of reaching out just with information as opposed to a marketing pitch, followed up by individual calls to the client.

-Some of our fellow consultants like Michael Thomsen of Origin 84 and Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys have contributed to the show with some of their ideas for contacting clients

351: Mirros Accross Devices

Topics:

-Deliveries is a great app from JuneCloud to track shipments for your business or your clients from any carriers
https://junecloud.com/software/iphone/deliveries.html

-Very top of mind is the delay of shipments from China due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

-It is reminiscent of the shortage of SSD drives from Taiwan due to extreme weather

-Conferences like Google IO, Facebook F8 have been canceled due to virus concerns as well

-Joe suggests to run a report to see where core equipment and hardware come from to make sure you have stock in case of shortages

-Jerry recently had to do a big restore from BackBlaze.  Both Joe & Sam suggested having a drive sent.  But Jerry proactively prepared the backup overnight and then restored all 70 GB before arriving to the client site. 

-After struggling to unzip the data using multiple GUI tools, Jerry was able to use the command line to extract the data

-All this reminds the hosts how many end users don’t think to backup their Mac

-DollyDrive anyone?

-With the uncertainties about data integrity on Catalina, listener Chris Hart writes in to provide his workflow for migrating to Apple’s latest OS.  Steps include booting from an external volume and using Carbon Copy Cloner

-Another option for comparing files that Joe suggests is using the ‘diff’ or ‘rsync’ commands

-Any listeners have their own methods for migration to mitigate the risks of data loss?

350: How Many Billable Hours?

Topics:

-Command Control Power has a few new Patreon sponsors to announce. Thank you to the following patrons for responding to our call:
Bruce Corson
Rocco Russo
Kevin Cox
Steven Kurtz

-Joe wants to know how many billable hours his fellow consultants bill in a given week

-Sam & Jerry quickly produce their numbers as they were not aware there was a quiz

-An addition that Sam mentions is the recurring revenue from MSP clients, which helps as a stable baseline for those slow weeks/months

-Jerry wonders how relevant those billable hours are in comparison to simply knowing how much revenue is needed to “keep the lights on”

-Subtracting raw numbers of a 40 hour work week (for admin tasks, internal meetings, etc.), Joe ends up with 19 possible billable hours per consultant, per week.

-With Joe & Sam having employees, Jerry poses questions about incentives for them to keep the numbers up and bring in revenue for the company

-Sam had an issue where his employee was not documenting quick fixes with MSP clients because he thought it simply didn’t matter.

-Even when time is not billable, or you extend a discount to a client, you should always document and show this to the client. You never know when you need to call back to this information.

-Jerry pushes Joe & Sam to find out how they physically document hours not dedicated to clients

-Quoting job estimates takes time that a consultant can master over time

-Sam disappears right in the nick of time!

348: More Fiddleable Time

Topics:

-Command Control Power needs your support. If you feel like the show has benefited you and your business, please consider supporting us on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/cmdctrlpwr

-Jerry has a real head scratcher with a new client who had files disappearing from the desktop. He tried various fixes, including the keyboard shortcut to show hidden files: Command + Shift + Period. As it turns out, it was Parallels Desktop that had a toggle to hide items on the desktop. Face Palm!

-The next thing Jerry had to deal with was, how much should he charge?

-PSA from one of our listerners - 10.15.3 appears to correct the bug of data loss in Apple Mail. Thanks to Claire @ Passion Support for bringing it to our attention

-Another listener and “verified oldster” Glenn Kowalski describes the details behind some older network terminology like AppleTalk & LocalTalk

-Joe describes some helpful details about local IP address reporting within Watchman Monitoring

-Joe describes his frustrations with diagnosing logs on macOS

-Shout out to our friends at The TidBITS Content Network for their invaluable contributions

-Joe shares a story from listener Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys where a client fell for a painfully obvious scam

-Jerry has a positive experience to share setting up Eero in a residential environment

-With mesh networks, Joe also leans towards Eero for ease of setup and maintenance.  But he does have concerns about privacy and ownership by Amazon

-The Eero Pro portal to manage all of your clients is a nice benefit to centrally manage things like updates and adding devices. https://pro.eero.com