376: The Cell Reception In Prison Is Not That Good

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Topics:

-Joe starts with a classic Watchman Monitoring corner. He uses the volumes plugin to view storage history. 

-For producing a heat map, Sam uses a tool called NetSpot. 

-Domotz gets another shoutout from Jerry for network monitoring and reporting. 

-While we sing the praises of Watchman Monitoring, Sam has a difficult experience dealing with an Eero Pro account.

-One of Joe’s clients took it upon themselves to use the LAN port on their gateway to plug in a computer. -Joe talks about opportunities like this to sell IT management services. 

-Some clients will use buzz words that they hear to sound like they know more than they do. 

-Jerry is going to be first in line Elon Musk’s Starlink space internet company. 

-Jerry has to school another tech in how the MAC address of an external Ethernet adapter can cause trouble with MAC address filtering. 

-After pushing Apple Business Manager to a particular client, Sam receives a frustrated response. 

-Can you receive text messages via email? Joe talks about “tech articles with fluff”. 

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375: Two Beacons In A Box

Topics:

-Jerry gets called to do a tough Wi-Fi job. Double masking, rubber gloves, and humidity don’t mix. 

-Jerry turns to listener and friend of the show John Moder for advice on the job. 

-after a big storm in our area, some have been left without power and internet. Even cellular was affected due to cell towers losing power. 

-Jerry realizes just how tied to the grid he is. 

-As Sam realizes the same, he describes how he could no longer manage his Philips Hue lights using his HomePod due to a lack of internet connectivity. 

-Both Joe & Jerry have done some research on backup ISP options. 

-Jerry learned about HomeBridge for Synology, which is supposed to make more devices HomeKit compatible.  His experience was not a positive one. 

-One of Jerry’s clients jumps the gun and hard restarted just SonicWall. Jerry had to go onsite and correct the issue. 

-Somehow we end up sharing stories about trying to have a conversation while at the dentist. 

-Small Cubed makes some great add ons for apple Mail. Jerry has a PSA about Send Later. 

-To wrap up, Jerry has a rant about people traveling during current times. Joe shares a rant on masks. 

374: The Sam Valencia Seal Of Approval

Topics:

-The conversation about learning on the job continues. 

-Joe throws to Sam about identity management. Services like JumpCloud come up as a good option for even small offices. G Suite Cloud Identity Management is a great option for customers who already use Google for services like email and Google Drive.  Sam shares a shameless plug about a white paper regarding G Suite and Jamf Pro. 
https://www.hcsonline.com/support/white-papers?start=20

-Microsoft provides great options in Azure as well. 

-We talk about how to implement services for a client when our own experience is limited. 

-Jerry asks a good question about how to sell something to a client that ultimately makes your life easier as a technician. 

-Sam goes on about Apple Business Manager and automated enrollment. 

-Jerry & Joe challenge Sam on why a small business should invest their time to getting this all set up. 

-Joe also makes a good point about the Apple custom store portal. This also allows the consultant to be added to create quotes.

-A call to all ACNs to sign up for Apple Business Manager: https://business.apple.com

373: Super Secret Squirrel Password

Topics:

-Joe schools us on verified phone calls on iPhone. 

-Jerry has been testing iOS 14 with positive results. 

-Both Jerry & Joe have been using RingCentral for years. Joe decided to clean house with his extensions. 

-Sam just has nana answering his calls. 

-Back to user sentiment surveys, Joe describes how apps seem to pause for an extended period before asking for a rating. 

-Exavault makes a diagnostics tool called MTR that Jerry has had success with for traceroutes.

-Security is brought up again by Joe. It reminds Sam of the “I’m a Mac” commercials with Windows Vista:
https://youtu.be/8CwoluNRSSc

-Screen Recording, a long griped about feature on the show, is an admin only feature as of now in the beta release of Big Sur. The hope is that this will be configurable via MDM. 

-System 8 is now available virtually!
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21346392/mac-os-8-electron-app-download-windows-linux-features

-One of Sam’s neighbors sometimes reminds him of Rick Moranis from Ghostbusters. It then turns into a story about the feud between his dog and the mailman. 

-Sam spins a yarn about setting up new Wi-Fi hardware and SSIDs at multiple client sites and the curve balls that are thrown at him.

-The conversation delves into Joe’s yoga practices.

-Since diving into the Wi-Fi security topic, Joe talks about 802.1x Authentication and other security measures. It starts a discussion about learning new technology on the job. 

372: Way High

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Topics:

-We debate the earth’s shape and whether or not it spins. Share your opinion!

-Satellite ISPs create a new level of headache for Joe’s remote support. 

-Joe thinks he is chronically under billing. Remote work may contribute to that issue.

-Jerry offers some ideas for a sliding scale.

-Michael Thomsen has some valuable input via Slack to contribute to the billing discussion.

-Right in line with the billing conversation, Jerry has a rough go at it while trying to migrate data for a client. It look him to the next day both on and off site and ended up billing only a fraction of his efforts.

-All this talk about how many hours to bill remind Sam of Monty Python and The Holy Grail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk

-A debate ensues about what is a reasonable amount of time to bill and how much the client.

-Not to be left out, Sam has a new client that he under billed for onboarding services. He struggles to figure out how to deal with that because of their history with a previous consultant.

-Sam finds himself in a tough spot when he was “way high” on a ladder

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371: Sometimes It's Not Pretty To See The Way The Sausage Is Made

Topics:

-The show starts with Joe & Jerry as Sam is rushing back from a job. 

-Jerry has been spending his free time on Facebook Marketplace. He gives us a little history of stereo equipment as he picks up a couple of Marantz receivers. 

-A client reaches out to Joe for a fan repair on an old Mac running OS 9!

-Jerry puts out a call to listeners for old stereo equipment. 

-The guys recall childhood stories of being band geeks and nerds. 

-Pro tip from Jerry.  Cotton face masks under disposable masks have cut down on the fogginess that can occur for those who wear glasses. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085CNR5QQ/

-Friendly PSA - stock up on PPE while there is inventory and before the start of school brings more panic buying. 

-Jerry has a possible tip for those that have had trouble using QuickTime to display an iOS device. 

-“How did we do?” - we discuss how beneficial those post support surveys really are. 

-On the flip side, Malwarebytes took a unique approach to incentivize people to attend a seminar. 

-Sam had a negative experience with malwarebytes sales. 

-Some of Jerry’s clients text their requests. Sometimes the informality can create confusion. 

-Pro Tip from Joe: try deselecting the auto join checkbox in macOS Wi-Fi network list instead of removing networks.

-Sam also uses a script to remove unwanted networks. This can be run on an ongoing basis as a maintenance script for computers.