224: Interview With Christopher Holmes of Rooted Consulting & HCS Technology Group

TOPICS:

Christopher Holmes of Rooted Consulting and HCS Technology Group
https://www.rootedconsulting.org/
Twitter: @josemocha
Instagram: @josemocha

Chris and Sam talk up Slack and using it internally

Sam going to set up a tent at a local festival as a new avenue to reach out to potential customers
http://www.seaport.org/

A discussion brews about keeping smaller clientele vs large entities that represent a large portion of your income

To sign or not to sign?  Sam contemplates whether signing a new client was the right fit

An opportunity arises where a PC consultancy wants to partner up

Chris talks about his company, Rooted Consulting and their help desk offering called Flex Desk

Hiring is forever on Sam’s mind…

Why is searching network volumes so difficult?

Easy Find vs Finder
http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html

Chris brings up AFP going away in High Sierra https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/APFS_Guide/FAQ/FAQ.html

Preventing updates by clients.  The ongoing battle

iOS screen sharing?  TeamViewer says it’s coming in iOS 11!

https://www.teamviewer.com/en/features/ios-screen-sharing/

223: It's not you, it's me!

TOPICS:

Sam gets back from his European tour and gives us all the details

A potential crisis is averted at a large client while Sam is away

Sam puts out a call for an HP managed switch expert

HP Enterprise support is not a joyous experience for Sam

“Don’t we have people that can do this?” - Becoming a manager and keeping the tech

iCloud Photo Sharing goes “belly up” and Sam finds an interesting way to resolve it

Joe has his own iCloud Photo Library sync issue

An interesting situation for Sam when an AirPort Extreme will not allow outbound VPN connections

Sharing the detailed Unifi app with a client backfires on Sam

Joe has the age old problem of clients pinging him for freebies

Sam has trouble multitasking.  Joe has some answers.

Joe’s client emailed the wrong email address for PsiMac with surprising results

Taking it personal when your contact at a client leaves unexpectedly

uBlockorigin is a fascinating ad blocker - https://www.ublock.org

Joe forces Sam to reveal some recently unpleasant experiences with Windows

Sam goes through a tough negotiation pitching MSP to a legacy client

When your potential replacement seeks details about the client

https://www.patreon.com/cmdctrlpwr

221: DMARC, Eero's & Toupee's

Topics:

- Joe discusses the problem with automatically forwarding mail in the era of DMARC and walks through an explanation from Kerio:

- You have a hosted Kerio email account, with a domain of clientname.com

- You have a forwarding rule configured to forward all email addressed to name@clientname.com to clientaddress@gmail.com

- Gmail enforces a DMARC policy

- Gmail sees the forwarded email as if they were coming from the original sender, e.g.: Facebook, PayPal, etc. etc.

- But the emails are NOT coming from the mailservers of those senders (e.g. mail.facebook.com, mail.paypal.com – fake examples), they are actually coming from the Kerio mail server (mail.itekmail.com)

- This triggers a failure of compliance with DMARC, since the sending mail server doesn't match the sending address.

- Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about this, other than use the main account (name@clientname.com), setting it up on a mail client of your choice, to avoid this problem.

- Joe and Jerry discuss Eero, and Joe explains the challenge of configuring an alternate subnet:

- Eero ad automatically assigned 192.168.7.1 subnet

- AV guy had static IPs manually assigned to two IR controllers

- had to use Advanced settings to hangs subnet to 10.0.0.0 (10.0.1.0 not an option; annoying because that's a common Apple one so this must be a common issue)

- tried to adjust starting IP to 10.0.0.1, subnet to 255.255.0.0, and ending IP to 10.0.1.254; didn't work

- after updating, allowed me to select 10.0.0.0 range and change it to 10.0.1.0 range, which worked

218: Apple TV & Smith.ai - Virtual Receptionists

TOPICS:

• Jerry discusses his experience running IOS 11 Beta
  

• Joe chats about his frustration with Apple TV screen saver and its inability to use iCloud Photo Library albums, e.g. Favorites etc. They show in the interface to select My Photos as the source, but there is no Set as Screensaver button as there is within Shared Albums. The only way to do this is to use a Shared Album? This seems to be a longstanding bug/limitation in tvOS.
  

• A long discussion about virtual receptionist services and Jerry's first hand experience using Smith.ai for the last sixty days.
  
  "Smith is a superior call answering service for small businesses and individuals. Our virtual receptionists help you build better relationships with new and existing customers."
  
  Pricing begins at $50 per month - http://smith.ai/web/pricing/
  
  Start your new Smith account today, with a, FREE 30-day/10-call trial covering 9am-9pm EST.
  
  Mention MacWorks when you signup for your trial or Command-Control-Power
  

• Finally! No more annoying robocalls and telemarketers.- Nomorobo

214: Hiding In The Server Room or Where The Buffalo Roam

Topics:

Jerry shares a story about working on an older MacBook Air that takes an interesting turn

Old tricks for retrieving data from dead hard drives are discussed. Do you risk it or go right to Drive Savers?

Sam makes an attempt to restore a file for a client and takes some time to hide out in the server room when he can't find it

Jerry goes through a scare with a Buffalo NAS when at a client site and comes up with a creative solution:
Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo 2-Bay 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage LS-W2.0TGL/R1 - https://www.amazon.com/Technology-LinkStation-Attached-LS-W2-0TGL-R1/dp/B001696ZXA

Paragon - ExtFS for Mac 11 - https://www.paragon-software.com/ufsdhome/extfs-mac/

ReclaiMe File Recovery Ultimate
to recover Windows and Linux PCs, Macs, and NASes - - http://www.reclaime.com

Working with multiple versions of software presents its challenges

Liquid spills and freezer tricks lead to a recent Apple development:

AppleCare+ for Mac now available:
MacBook Pro 13-inch: $269.00 (vs. $249 before?)
MacBook Pro 15-inch: $379.00
iMac: $169.00 (same as before!)
Get up to 3 years of accidental damage coverage and 24/7 expert telephone technical support from Apple, the people who know your Mac best.

The guys all have Late 2016 MacBook Pros and kick around the idea of upgrading to the latest model with Apple's hardware announcements

Use Etrecheck to search for legacy items that might be affecting your computer's performance:
https://www.etrecheck.com/

213: "Building your Brand" with Erin Bury - Managing Director of Eighty-Eight Agency

Erin Bury is senior agency leader and marketer & former startup journalist. She currently is Managing Director at Eighty-Eight, a Toronto-based creative communications agency that works with technology and consumer clients. Eighty-Eight Agency has appeared in AdWeek, AdAge, and dozens of other publications around the world, and they've worked with clients including Yellow Pages, Torstar, and multiple fast-growing startups.

Prior to Eighty-Eight, Erin was Managing Editor at BetaKit, a publication that reports on startups and innovation. She ran the editorial side, and put together research reports for the BetaKit Insights trend research product. Within months of launching, BetaKit was #32 on Techmeme’s top 100 tech publications in the world. 

Erin Bury is a journalism graduate who writes a column for the Financial Post, and has written for publications including The Globe and Mail, Business Insider, and Marketing Magazine. She comments frequently in the press about marketing and entrepreneurship, and has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Forbes, CNN, Profit, Inc., and Canadian Business. She also is a weekly tech commentator on CTV News.

Erin is a frequent speaker at events across North America, and is represented by the National Speakers Bureau. She has led workshops and hosted events for companies including Price Waterhouse Coopers, Square Canada, Microsoft Canada, and Jenny Craig. 

She was also named one of Marketing Magazine's top 30 Under 30 marketers, journalists & PR pros in August 2012. Find her on Twitter at @erinbury or email erin@eightyeightagency.com.

Here is Erin's Workbook - "10 keys to building a great personal brand" that she presented at the recent ACES Conference in Phoenix, AZ

This Episode Sponsored by:
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