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IT Pros: exclusive shows await you on Patreon, focusing on the more challenging aspects of running your practice and working with clients and employees.

236: MacBook Pro - Turn Back Time

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Topics

  • Root login issue

    • needs catchy name... “Higher Sierra. Even Higher Sierra? Too High Sierra...”

    • Joe wonders if FileVault was affected, assumes not. Probably need to log into existing user account first. From Addigy's email: "Gaining access to user accounts and turning off FileVault encryption"

    • ARD was susceptible. (Another reason not to forward ARD/SSH port from WAN to LAN!)

  • Our friends at Addigy put out an immediate fix: https://www.addigy.com/fix-the-high-sierra-root-exploit

  • Clients ask, "should I update to the new macOS?" We usually recommend waiting a few months, especially with the major filesystem changes in High Sierra. Our previous best practice was to recommend waiting until the 10.x.3 update. Should we go back to that recommendation? Note that the issue existed in the current beta of 10.13.2 in addition to the latest release of 10.13.1.

    • The sweet spot of macOS releases: 10.x.3 - 10.x.n

    • Note the latest release of each macOS version, e.g. 10.5.8, 10.6.8 v1.1, 10.7.5, 10.8.5, 10.9.5, 10.10.5, 10.11.6, 10.12.6, etc.

  • Sam talks about "winging it" with a product he used to support - Canto Cumulus

  • Jerry starts a good discussion about the current lines of MacBook Pro models and the changes that have not been well received. He mentions Marco Arment's blog posts
    -The best laptop ever made: https://marco.org/2017/11/14/best-laptop-ever
    -Fixing the MacBook Pro: https://marco.org/2017/11/24/fixing-the-macbook-pro

  • Joe has some follow up on removing the Temp user account when the minus button is not available: you can also use Directory Utility. Open Directory Utility, authenticate as the Temp user, then remove the Temp user. Verify Temp user has been removed in Users & Groups, then manually delete home folder of Temp user. Note that we also tried changing the user's password from within the existing user (to avoid keychain issues) and it didn't work.

229: Interview wIth Taylor Boyko of SimpleMDM

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October 10, 2017

TOPICS:

INTERVIEW:

SimpleMDM is the Apple iOS and macOS device manager that you've been waiting for. With modern, intuitive functionality, SimpleMDM gives you access to a cloud-hosted platform with advanced functionality usually reserved for convoluted enterprise suites. For instance, macOS native package installation, allowing you to install management tools like Chef, Munki or Puppet without having to install a cumbersome agent first. SimpleMDM provides additional features like location tracking, filevault key escrow, and support for multiple VPP and DEP accounts for integration into your zero-touch deployment workflow.

SimpleMDM sports a robust API, multiple admin users, 2-factor authentication and SAML support to integrate seamlessly with your admin environment.

Start your 30-day free trial today at SimpleMDM and have access to their US-based engineering team without having to deal with an aggressive sales team. Priced simply, with volume discounts, SimpleMDM won't require advanced math to calculate your annual spend. You can sign up to at simplemdm.com/ccp, and be sure to join #simplemdm in the Mac Admins Slack.

https://simplemdm.com/ccp

FOLLOWUP: 

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

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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/

212: Live With Susan Chiz Berenguer of EmSpace Technology Consulting

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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!

This week Susan Chiz Berenguer of EmSpace Technology Consulting joins us for a conversation about her consulting practice and focusing on elder support.

EmSpace is an Independent Information Technology & Macintosh Services company, specializing in analyzing the needs and requirements of small to medium sized businesses, agencies and design firms with an emphasis on home-based clients, both on-site and via remote access. Clients rely upon EmSpace to analyze the state of their current systems, recommend the growth path necessary to enhance their production requirements, research features and develop cost/benefit analysis information. Once purchased; - install new hardware, firmware and software and train the appropriate personnel in its use and maintenance. On existing installations - advise and train clients in the practices of information archiving, memory management and network management and computing security.

http://emspaceplace.com
@emspace

207: "Live" Updating Your Credit Card At The Apple Store

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Topics:

Patreon sponsorship is changing

Jerry comes up with a new way for the show to raise money

Our next live show will be at ACEs 2017

Joe has some follow up about Circle with Disney

A discussion brews about virtual & live answering services:
Call Ruby

Sam proctored the Support Essentials exam for Joe & his employees. How did they all do?

We learn even more about Joe's extensive staff

Sam describes an odd permissions issue with Microsoft Office 2016 and an SMB share on macOS Server

Joe has seen some issues with Sophos Home that have affected his client's web browsing experiences

Some follow up for Sam who had strange DNS entries on his computer

Jerry had recent interactions with the always supportive staff at Carbon Copy Cloner

Synology had an issue recently with DSM Update that caused issues for some of their NAS devices

An unfortunate miscommunication caused a mixup for one of Sam's clients 

Remote support isn't all its cracked up to be, as Joe reminds us

Elevation Lab created the Battery Pro, a combo iPhone & Apple Watch charger

Thanks to all of our Patrons!

204: PSI Tools & NAS Storage With Kevin Ginger

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Topics:

Joe talks up his PsiTool and the benefits of keeping up to date external volumes as a diagnostics drive.  He also discusses his use of SoftRAID

To no surprise, Carbon Copy Cloner comes up in the methods of creating the PsiTools partitions
https://bombich.com

Highly recommended: SanDisk SDCZ880-256G-G46 Extreme PRO 256GB USB 3.1 Solid State Flash Drive
http://amzn.to/2oonKjm

Jerry gives us a run down of Volitans Software, used by Watchman Monitoring: https://www.volitans-software.com

We get the history behind Joe's company name!

Kevin Ginger (@kginger_cons) joins us for the second half of the show!

Diving right in, the group discusses Kevin's recommendations on QNAP & Synology

QNAP, Inc. - Network Attached Storage (NAS)
https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/model.php?II=233
-TVS-1282T :: QNAP
-TVS-x82T Thunderbolt 2 NAS supports tiered storage, application-based partitioning and network traffic distribution, provides DAS/NAS/ iSCSI SAN triple solution, and enables 4K 60 fps video transfer and display.

Kevin also had the opportunity to speak at MacTech Pro Seattle in March.  Command Control Sponsor is a proud media sponsor of MacTech Pro Events.  Look for it at a city near you:
http://pro.mactech.com/go/ccp/

Sharing a war story, Kevin goes into what happens when your main storage device fails

If nothing more it provides opportunity to tell other clients what can happen if you don't plan for the worst

Kevin will be returning to Aces Conference this year, where we will be holding our special live show.  There is still time to join us and be a part of it!  Click the link below to find out more and register: