196: Phil Schilmer Calls Apple Support

- 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:

-Jerry records an encounter with an organization claiming to be Apple support.  "Phil Schilmer" takes the bait.

-After receiving a routing call to setup Windows in Bootcamp, Jerry has some hurdles.
Set up a Windows partition on your Mac: 

-Joe puts a call out to non-ACN listeners to hear your story.  Email or tweet us!

-Sam has a client struggling to understand the value of his MSP model.

-Needing to provide employee monitoring for a client, Jerry researches and reports on ActivTrak. 

-Services like CrashPlan provide cloud based backup, but what about when it's time to restore?  Jerry has to suffer through that slow process.

-Why do end users close the TeamViewer Quick Support window after giving credentials?

-The CCP crew discusses the pros and cons of selling used equipment on eBay.  Jerry tries to organize a tech tag sale.

-Jerry and Sam work together over the weekend to correct an issue with Rumpus running on macOS Server 5. 
http://www.maxum.com/Rumpus/Blog/OSXServer5Conflicts.html

-Refer back to Episode 079 to hear all about Rumpus from its creator, John O'Fallon of Maxum Development.

195: A Friend Of My Nephew Does Our IT Work

Topics:

-Sam has some follow up (or lack there of) from his sketchy router story on show 194.  He also discusses the perils of working with "a friend's nephew".

-Jerry poses a question to the group about spending long days on-site.

-Joe deals with the frustration of dealing with clients that don't respect your time.

-Sam gets bitten by non-responsive Macs due to a security update not being applied: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1908?locale=en_US.  The story turns out to be a win for Sam and Addigy.

Take a look at Addigy for yourself and give it a test drive.

-Sierra Tip of the week - A Finder preference to keep Folders on top when sorting by name

-Did you Patreon supporters receive your tattoos?  If not, send us your address to receive them.

-Joe has a snafu when changing the main email address for an Apple ID.  He shares it as a PSA for our listeners.

-Sam shares an odd iCloud Family Sharing story in the hopes that someone out there has some thoughts...

-Not to be outdone, Joe describes a situation where a customer's devices are showing a two factor authentication prompt seemingly random.

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

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.

188: Interview With Jason Dettbarn / Founder & CEO of Addigy - Cloud Based Mac Management Platform

CCP proudly welcomes Jason Dettbarn, founder & CEO of Addigy, a Cloud Based Mac Management Platform.  Addigy simplifies and streamlines the IT management of your Macs by providing a comprehensive approach to security & management for macOS.

Jason, who obtained his Masters in Computer Science, worked for a few big players like CA and Kaseya before leaving to start Addigy in May of 2014.  Take a listen as we dive in deeper with Jason to learn about why he started Addigy and why it fills a void in RMM (Remote Monitoring & Management) support for the Mac.

Sign up for a free trial with Addigy: https://cmdctrlpwr.addigy.com/signup

187: "Merry Crimble!"

Recorded live on December 23, 2016

- When The Beatles Gave Fans A 'Crimble' Present
http://www.npr.org/2014/12/21/372257350/when-the-beatles-gave-fans-a-crimble-present

- We're sponsored this week by:

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

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!

Gruntwork is the ultimate managed service package for you and your clients. "Think of what you would do when trying to solve a user’s support request: run a disk verification utility. Run permission repair. Update the affected software to the latest version. With Gruntwork, those chores have already been accomplished. Your time spent troubleshooting issues is greatly reduced when the common maladies are already ruled out. Better yet, Gruntwork prevents many common problems, so the Mac just works and you can focus on higher level tasks for your client." 

Find out more at - http://mac-msp.com/gruntwork and tell them CCP sent you.

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