379: Too Close For Comfort

Topics:

-Joe has been in the Pacific Northwest recently and shares some of his experiences being in areas affected by the recent wildfires.

-After being in Colorado for two months, he went to Washington, where he hiked North Cascades National Park.

-The haze of smoke and smell of fire on a regular basis became a worry.

-We learn a lot about air quality index measurements and how to observe it in Apple Maps. In the Seattle area, they saw an AQI of 220, a considerably unhealthy number.

-They eventually made it to Montana

-As they drove through Spokane, they experienced an AQI of 492.

-We think of our friends that live in those areas that are affected and they don’t have the luxury of leaving the area.

-While in safer territory, Joe experiences a comically opposite situation when a sprinkler system goes off in the middle of a work day.

-Sam has an uncomfortable conversation with a neighbor that invades his personal space.

-The hosts get political and discuss their feelings on the current state of affairs and who to vote for president.

-A big shout out to Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network and his endorsement of Joe Biden.

378: Boxers Or Briefs?

Topics:

-Sam has a rough start to a phishing campaign he was preparing.

-A recent visit to the dentist left Jerry thinking more about cleanliness.

-A round table discussion brews about protection measures.

-While working with a client, Jerry has some issues dealing with an OWC ThunderBay and SoftRAID. Meanwhile his client becomes confused about how the technology works together.

-Not surprisingly, another client becomes confused about mail storage vs local disk storage.

-Sometimes people’s computer habits can get in the way of when we need to troubleshoot issues.

-Do you use tabs or new windows in your browser?

-Sam has really struggled with setup and working with Sonos. 

-Sam mysteriously disappears!

377: Playing The Hits

376: The Cell Reception In Prison Is Not That Good

Thank you to our VIP sponsors!

Special Thanks to our friends:

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”. 

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

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