363: Patience Of Joe-b

Topics:

-Jerry & Sam speak with a guest who may be in witness protection 

-Jerry continues to be frustrated with remote sessions. 

-Sam is wowed by the ability to VNC directly into the touch screen of Toshiba multifunction printers. 

-Swiping up on the address bar of Safari for iOS minimizes it for more website real estate. A nice find by Joe. 

-Customers will sometimes drop computers off and do just a little too much to “swaddle” and protect it. 

-Joe has some theories of Captcha images. 

-We dedicate some time to discuss Sam’s backyard/Zoom background. 

-Sam has one heck of a time getting back into his Amazon account after being locked out due to what they detected as fraudulent activity. 

-One of Joe’s clients has multiple infections of malware on an aging Mac mini. Upon some digging, he finds some crafty malware that burrows itself in a Bookmark folder called “New Page”. 

-Upgrading old networks sometimes is met with underwhelming responses. 

-Jerry has to lay down the law with a client that has legacy email accounts and years of data and sync issues. 

-A previous consultant wanted to bill Joe’s new client for password gathering. 

-Host Gator is a challenge to deal with as Joe unfortunately finds out. 

-The email venting continues…

-A client that Sam has known for many years asks him if he needs to escalate to his tech.  

361: Command Control Power "Almost Live" at ACEs 2020

Topics:

-Sam is recording from his beach front property

-Jerry has the Richard Wingfield starter kit with his goatee.  An homage to our friend and contributor to the show

-Joe could not get his janky mic to work moments before recording the show

-In a recent trip to the market, Sam loses one of his AirPods while taking off his mask.

-While on the topic of AirPods, Jerry has a tip for easily pairing your AirPods with your Mac. An app called ToothFairy: https://c-command.com

-Joe has his fancy pants AirPods Pro and shows off the features

-We go around the horn to show our threads.  Joe is wearing his company logo, PsiMac.  Jerry is proudly wearing a Watchman Monitoring shirt.  Sam is wearing an Origin84 shirt from listener and friend of the show, Michael Thompsen.

-Sam is so far disappointed with the performance of his new MacBook Air.  Jerry wonders if he has too many items on his desktop…

-Joe recently purchased a MacBook Air, right before the release of the latest model.  He has an Apple support story with a happy ending.

-With regards to the fan issues on the new MacBook Air computers, Joe talks about the limited “thermal headroom”.

-Jerry wants us to be guinea pigs to try an app called Turbo Boost, to disable that feature and see if ti helps: http://tbswitcher.rugarciap.com

-Sam decided he did not need a MacBook Pro any longer and he is now regretting that decision

-Joe asks about screen size and remote access. Jerry & Sam both use accessibility features to zoom in to areas of the remote computer.  

-Sam goes commando with his phone and has paid the price.  Jerry wonders about changing the name of the show.

-Jerry has been performing a good amount of iMac repairs and upgrades.  In a recent repair job, he suffers damage to the logic board.  He enlists the help of Command Control Power patron, John Moder of Crisp Solutions (http://www.crispsolutions.net).  John puts him in touch with Computer Repair of Des Moines, who performed incredible work to repair the board.

-Moving to topics related to the current times, Sam has a direct conversation with his employee about what his comfort level is when it comes to visiting clients.  He also wants to make sure that the company supplies him with anything he needs.

-Having similar conversations with clients is also critical to make sure there is no confusion. Especially when they may be paying monthly for a service they expect to receive.

-As we all start adjusting to changes while being onsite, Joe watches in shock as other contractors at a client site are being very lax in their approach to safety.

-Working in this new remote capacity and essentially making your clients be your onsite hands can be awkward. In addition, it can lead to even more awkward conversations about billing.

-Thank you to Justin Esgar, Tim Pearson and the team at ACES!

360: Bum steer Or A No Steer

Topics:

-iMac upgrade needed?  No problem!  Or is it?  Jerry has quite the story to tell…

-It reminds Joe of a PSA from listener Brandon Walter on episode 273: https://commandcontrolpower.com/podcast/tag/take+control

-Supply constraints crossed Joe’s mind as factories and shipping companies are being affected by COVID-19.

-Joe wonders about external SSD options as an alternative iMac upgrade.  Jerry & Sam give their two cents.

-With so many computers in offices offline, it’s possible to get lazy about your Watchman Monitoring tickets. Stay alert!

-“I’m gonna preface this by saying I love my clients.”  -Jerry Zjgmont

-Jerry & Joe banter about walking clients through new purchases

-For making hardware purchases, Joe tends to lean towards Apple Retail and the custom store portal for ACNs.  Jerry has a good relationship with a reseller in the NY area.

-TidBITS Content Network (https://tcn.tidbits.com) content and affiliate links in articles are a dynamic duo to drive quality traffic to your site.

359: There’s Billable Work Hiding In that Closet

Topics:

-We dive right in with Joe telling a story of inadvertently having a client take apart a Magic Mouse.  So she can’t use her computer but she can now use the Zoom app on her iPhone.  So there’s that.

-Speaking of Zoom, Jerry has a hell of a time trying to use Group FaceTime with friends.  So they moved to Zoom.

-Joe has seen an uptick in work this past week.  Jerry & Sam can’t say the same.

-Jerry has an odd issue with a client who lost his admin account on the Mac.  Sam is now his buddy after assisting via Messages.

-Another interesting development that Jerry is seeing is people pulling old computers out of the closet to work with.  He is referring all of those clients to PsiMac.  Joe will happily take them.

-Live, during the show, we receive word that Jon Brown of Grove Technologies has returned as a VIP sponsor!  Thanks Jon!

-Joe asks Sam for some updates on his MSP contract.  He has taken the new approach to itemize all the services he offers.  He also hopes that it provides incentive for clients to inquire about additional services that his company offers.

-Sam’s new MSP is going out this week to a potential client

-In recent weeks, Joe sent out a newsletter to offer Watchman Monitoring for free to clients.  He provides an update of how clients responded.  Just the information alone that he gathered from Watchman Monitoring allowed the beginning of conversations for possible next steps.

-When clients unsubscribe from your newsletter, it can feel personal.

-While on the subject of Watchman Monitoring, enrollment codes is a great way to allow self enrollment: Enrollment codes

-The Aces Conference: The Prequel is on for May 19-20 and Command Control Power will be participating.  Sign up to be a part of it all! https://acesconf.com/aces-conference-the-prequel/

-And don’t forget, Aces will be in Atlanta in October: https://acesconf.com

358: Corona Downtime

Topics:

-There is a lull that Joe sees over the last two weeks so he explores an option to offer Watchman Monitoring for his clients free of charge

-Jerry goes in depth into his strategy and changes in his process with tools like Watchman Monitoring

-Another idea was to change the name of his service, originally called MacWorks Monitoring, to MacWorks Alerts in an effort to make it more friendly to the user.

-After a new newsletter and free options for the newly minted service, he received very little response from his clients.

-The group at Command Control power wish the group at TidBITS a happy 30th anniversary!  They have provided invaluable information to us and fellow Apple consultants.  If you aren’t already a member of the TidBITS Content Network, consider becoming a member: https://tidbits.com/membership/benefits/

-As Joe asks Sam how his monthly clients have responded, he brings up one particular client that not only was behind on payment, but had their internet service cutoff due to non payment.

-Jerry notes that you cannot lean on anyone to sell anything new during this time. 

-Sam also adds that it would be good to check on some of your clients on a personal level.  Not everyone gets through this as well as others.

-Sam wants to know what people are doing to help their mental and physical health since this can be stressful in many ways

-Each of the hosts reveal what they do to keep themselves moving.  Sometimes you need to take your mind off of work, even if business is slow. 

-Reallocating newly available time is another concept that we are all needing to grapple with.

-Sam has been working on certifications for the Certified Wireless Network Professional: https://lms.cwnp.com

-Another item he has been working on is revamping his MSP documentation and moving away from the “magic number” and itemizing services as well as signing up for more partner programs.

-What are you working on these days?  CCP wants to know!

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!