457: In A Bit Of A Crisis

Topics:

-Joe discusses some of the new products released by Apple.

-All the latest announcements were immediately discussed in TidBITS Content Network newsletter.

-Josh Centers of TidBITS started a separate site called http://applebuyingadvice.com to help people make decisions on what products to purchase.

-Working with a long standing client where he used to be the “web master”, Joe recommends Squarespace for their updated website.

-One of Joe’s customers has a mac.com email address that did not seem to be able to receive mail any longer to anything but the new icloud.com address.

-Joe is frustrated about attempting to donate to UNICEF via Apple Music. Sam is surprised at making a live donation on air.

-Sam tries using a navigation app with some old friends with little success.

-Windows 365 is a cloud hosted version of Windows. Joe’s experience wasn’t so great.

-Dropbox issues a warning of compatibility with macOS 12.3: https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/macos-12-monterey-support

-Sam issues a warning about using a configuration profile to set a password expiration on a local Mac account.

-MDM Live from Addigy get a big thumbs up from Joe.

-In looking into it, Sam sees some very interesting beta features like MDM Live and Flex Policies.

-One of Sam’s clients reaches out at odd hours of the night. This particular issue dealt with a failed upgrade attempt.

-We discuss what defines a crisis and cancellation policies.

-We take a moment to thank Nate Cinal of Scout IT for his thoughtful gifts to the crew.

456: Tipping Appreciated?

Topics:

-Joe continues discussing a saga with an historically problematic client. They continually disregard his technology recommendations. 

-Jerry has a similar previous client that attempted to re-engage with him and he declined. 

-Joe works with our sponsor, Kolide to deploy endpoint security and work directly through Slack with his client. 

-He also used Addigy to deploy the Kolide package. 

-Jerry and Joe discuss the value of the Addigy Certified Expert: https://addigy.com/training/ace-course-overview/

-Do you receive or ask for tips in our field?

455: Getting On The High Horse

Topics:

-Jerry explores Synology notifications and Joe explains how Synology removed the built in feature. Central Management System to the rescue. 
https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/feature/cms_maintenance

-One of Jerry’s clients asks for employer tracking software. He was referred to Veriato. He asks the group their opinions on such a request. 

-Sam had a couple of sketchy client situations as well. 

-Messages in the cloud - A customer of Joe’s has questions regarding this feature and specifically syncing deletions. 

-Messages attachments can create storage issues for users. 

-Recommending upgrades can backfire as in the case when Joe recommended customers upgrade to Monterey 12.2. 

-Joe found a great bit of software called Mini Wale On LAN. Grab a copy and buy Hanz a cup of coffee:  https://www.tweaking4all.com

454: IT Essential Oils

Topics:

-Sam has finally filled the position at HCS CT!

-Jerry asks about Non-compete and NDA agreements.

-There is a cost to onboard a new employee and it is a risk you take in order to grow.

-One of Joe’s clients delays the move to a new server….again.

-This same client has been taking advice from other sources and it has strained the relationship.

-He has also explored a fee for working with clients that don’t include him in their technology decisions.

-Joe & Sam has some stories to share that are for our Patreon only feeds.

-As Sam has been dealing with Zoom latency issues at a particular network, he discovers Ubiquiti Smart Queues

-Dealing with VPNs, different subnets, and traffic, Joe gathers some good advice from Mike Kingsley and this handy command: sudo networksetup -setadditionalroutes

-This is a good alternative to “Send All Traffic”, which could inadvertently lead to unrelated traffic flowing through the VPN connection.

-Since Joe hijacked Sam’s MacAdmins Slack post about VPN traffic, he hijacks the show to shift to his topic in his quest to resolve an ongoing issue with Ubiquiti and SonicWall site to site VPN.

453: The Case Of The Weeping Wall Wart

Thank you to our VIP sponsors!

Topics:

-After attempting some remote upgrades, Joe found himself in a difficult situation. Thanks to an article from Mr. Macintosh, he was able to get out of a jam.

-Addigy has a fix in their community scripts to correct this issue before upgrades are performed.

-As Sam contemplates a fully remote support solution, Jerry talks about the pain points of doing so.

-One of Sam’s clients encounters a strange copy/paste issue and he quizzes the crew.

-Long time friend of the show, Tim Nyberg talks about how removing excess files in /var/folders can actually improve computer performance as well.

-Sam remotely onboards a new customer and finds a user with a non-standard setup. He had to come up with a creative way to resolve the situation.

-An OG client of Sam’s has a “media cabinet” with some pretty old school equipment.

-Jerry had a “wall wart” that needed mounting in a basement. He uses some heavy duty velcro to keep it up on the wall.

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

452: VPN For Clients

Topics:

-Jerry wants to know everyone’s take on VPNs. 

-iCloud Private Relay is another option that Joe will start to recommend as it comes out of beta. 

-One of Sam’s approaches is to suggest verbiage in employee agreements as opposed to enforcing technology. 

-More about iCloud Private Relay: About iCloud Private Relay - Apple Support

-Joe brings up valid concerns about using the office firewall as a VPN solution as it may not be scalable.

-Sam’s third party VPN of choice is NordVPN but he has some concerns about it now being in the App Store.

-Jerry wants everyone to use his affiliate links.

-As Sam’s daughter is applying to colleges, he is concerned about one institution’s practice in handling secure documents.

-As Jerry looks to migrate a client’s mail data, he finds that their current provider wont’ provide admin access, likely because they have multiple customers in the same portal.

-Password management and “credential stuffing” is an ongoing process for Joe’s customers. 

-It’s astonishing that some providers allow very insecure passwords.

-Props for TidBITS Content Network for providing incredibly useful content to provide to our customers for topics like password security.

-Keychain Password Manager “memorable” password feature is gone because it was a 32-bit function.