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578: Tech Upgrades, MFA Madness and More!

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Topics:

-Sam talks about his recent trip to Las Vegas to see Dead & Co at The Sphere

-BackBlaze has increased the price of sending a hard drive to $279.

-Jerry is running macOS Sequoia on his daily driver.

-Each year, the path of how users upgrade is a hot button topic.

-Sam likes Erase-install from Graham Pugh.

-A minimum point release is a safe bet for stability.

-The same people that don’t like security rules are the very people that are more likely to fall for things like phishing emails.

-Pulling that same thread, Microsoft is moving to conditional access for MFA and sunsetting per-user MFA.

-Joe talks about Apple disabling support for Post Script files. Sam does a like test.

-Jerry turned to Archive.org for an older version of the Drobo Dashboard app and he finds a live link to what he needed.

-He also suggests NextDNS for additional protection from harmful sites.

Thank you to our Patreon supporters!

576: The Hunger Games: Call Center Edition - One Headset, One Rep, You vs. Everyone Else

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Topics:

In this episode, Joe grapples with a series of technical issues while trying to start his stream. Joe faces multiple frustrations with his Mac and browser configurations, expressing his exasperation with technology. The conversation shifts to broader grievances about poor customer service and systemic inefficiencies within major corporations, as Jerry and Joe recount personal experiences involving vendors, ISPs, and even a Tesla purchase process. Sam joins to provide moral support.

-Technical Difficulties and Introductions

-Joe's Frustration with Technology

-Jerry's Perspective and Client Stories

-Sam Joins the Conversation

-The Elevator Phone Saga

-Systemic Issues and Accountability

-The Busboy's Tale: A Lesson in Employee Care

-The Rigged System: Accountability and Retention

-Customer Service Nightmares: Real Stories

-Deferred Financing Fiasco

-Warranty Woes: The Mitsubishi Saga

-Frustrations with Facebook: A Tech Support Story

-The Bigger Problem: Industry Failures

-The Tesla App Experience

-Live StreamYard Troubleshooting

-Concluding Thoughts

555: A Desperate Cry For Help

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▶️ New: watch on YouTube!

Topics:

-Has Sam really not backed up in an extraordinary amount of time?

-This sparks a discussion about backup policies in general.

-We talk about the 3-2-1 backup strategy and how relevant it still is.

-Joe shares a client story about how a calendar syncing app removed calendar history.

-If you’re a consultant, finding a backup service with affiliate options can be beneficial financially.

-We are constantly fighting the good fight about keeping macOS and hardware up to date.

-Joe charges a fee for working with unsupported Mac computers.

-There is a difference of what we will support, depending on residential vs business clients.

-How reliable is Time Machine?

-We share some details from our rates and plans survey. Join us on Patreon to hear more.

548: Interview With Chad Swarthout and Ryan Ball of Alectrona - Patch Management

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Thank you to our VIP sponsors!

Topics:

-We are pleased to welcome back Chad Swarthout, founder & CEO of Alectrona. We also have the pleasure of welcoming Ryan Ball, Director of Engineering at Alectrona.

-Chad was on the show back in 2019

-We discuss the road Alectrona has taken since back in 2019.

-Chad had the insight to go fully remote and close his office prior to the pandemic of 2020.

-A majority of their clients have offsite employees as well.

-All of the clients Alectrona has taken on since the pandemic have been all over the country.

-Jerry wants to know more about how they acquire clients outside of their local area.

-They tend to try and meet with customers on a regular basis to keep in contact and be aware of what needs changes.

-Chad talks about how they found a need for patch management in many of their Jamf engagements.

-From there, Alectrona Patch was born

-Ryan gets into the details of how Alectrona Patch works, mainly by the use of a configuration profile.

-Multiple times a day, they system polls for product updates to have them ready for update deployment.

-They account for a variety of installer formats like DMGs, PKGs, and zip files.

-Alectrona Patch is meant to by deployed via MDM.

-Learn more at https://www.alectrona.com/patch

-Alectrona Patch is on a monthly consumption model. $2.50/Mac per month up to 199 Mac computers. For larger needs, reach out to their team for pricing.

-Monthly pricing is based on how many unique devices are reaching out to their content server.

-Ryan & Chad talks about the back end details of how the tool works.

-Joe wants to know if Dolly Drive is supported.

-Another tool that Alectrona offers is called Migrator

-Migration Assistant has caused issues in business environments so the Alectrona team wanted to create a replacement for offsite users to seamlessly migrate to a new computer.

-This also sped up the return rate for previous computers.

-Jerry wants to know about white labeling, which the Alectrona products can support.

-You can reach out to the team about Alectrona Patch by visiting their MacAdmins Slack channel.

Thank you to our Patron sponsors!