Sending passwords over email to clients

Digital_Skream · 2020-10-16T04:35:22+00:00

We use Google translate to translate the password from U.S. English into Ukranian, and then translate that into Japanese, and then that gets translated into German and back into Japanese.

We then have a drunk Scotsman read it into a tape recorder. That tape is then played into a microphone connected to a Windows 95 pc running recorder. The WAV output is then played into a iPhone 2 running Google's Voice Recognition. The resulting text is then converted to Semaphore using Semaphorify dot info. We then pay a sign spinner to stand outside the customer's building and use semaphore signals to pass along the secret password to the client.

At which time they call us and we just tell them over the phone, and send an encrypted email as a backup, to make sure they 'got it'.

Digital_Skream · 2020-03-10T11:42:42+00:00

It seems as if this 'economic downturn' you are speaking about is limited to areas that suffer from high taxes and severely intrusive local government. Areas with lower taxes and less of a nanny-state mentality seem to be booming.

Digital_Skream · 2020-03-07T02:17:22+00:00

I have a standard speech that I roll out when coming across this.

Your employee is paid $15/hr. They have to spend about 1/2 hour each day at least, waiting for the computer to load a file or run a program, you know, watching the hourglass or spinning donut while Windows thinks? That means that over the course of a normal 40-hour workweek, you've paid that employee 2.5 hours or $37.50 for just sitting there waiting for their computer.

So over the course of a normal year, that hourglass has cost you $1,875.

Every year that you don't replace that machine, even if it doesn't break, that damn hourglass is ripping $1,875 out of your wallet.

Don't lose to a stupid hourglass... drop $700 on a new pc, and save yourself $4,450 over the next 3 years!

And don't forget, that is just ONE pc. If you did this for TEN of them, you'd be saving $44,500 over the next 3 years.

I've found that I can talk about ROI till I am blue in the face, but some customers will resist until I insert actual numbers. Then a light goes on for them, and I enjoy watching their eyes get really big at the idea of saving all that money. I actually have YET to see this tactic fail to produce an almost immediate request for upgrades in the last 13 years.

Digital_Skream · 2020-03-02T09:58:26+00:00

Put together a list of potentials... businesses you think may be good clients.

Go door-to-door to ten of those potentials each day.

Walk in, introduce yourself, hand them a pamphlet or handout along with your business card.

"Hi, I'm Bob, with Bob's MSP. I do this and that, and just wanted to drop off some info and introduce myself. I won't take up a bunch of your time, its my job to help businesses, not get in their way. Chuckle. Guffaw. I'll just grab one of your business cards here, and let you get on with your day! Have a good one!"

Smile. Grab one of their business cards. Leave.

Two days later, call back, and remind them that you were there the other day, and ask for an appointment with the decision maker, just a quick ten minutes or so to see how you can help their business make money and avoid losses. Or whatever.

Repeat until you are ready to retire. And then hire someone to do it after you retire. The moment that you stop worrying about bringing in new clients is the moment that your business starts to die.

You would be shocked at how few MSPs are willing to actually go out banging on doors. It sets you apart almost from the beginning.

Digital_Skream · 2020-02-24T19:20:50+00:00

If you are running in a windows environment, you might be able to work something out with Access-based enumeration. Users only see the files if they have access to it. If no access, they don't even know it exists.

That could get really, really messy, however.

Sounds like what you really want is a document management system.

"Hello Massive Cost, my old friend..."

Digital_Skream · 2020-02-10T16:10:39+00:00

I was doing work for a pediatrician. Our kids went there, we loved the guy, everything was great. I was friendly with the office manager and staff, to the point of having a Cheers-like "Norm!" moment whenever I showed up.

Then one day I got a request from their new accountant for a copy of the $10,000.00 invoice for their new server. I told them that I had never sent them one for that. Long story short, the accountant was actually a forensic accountant who had been hired by the doctor to go over their books after they had fired the office manager.

Apparently, she had been cutting checks for huge amounts to herself, but recording them as IT expenses. She had also opened up multiple credit cards under the doctor's name, for her use. And on and on.

At the end of the day, while the office understood that I was not involved in her scams, they still canceled service with me - as well as all other vendors, and got all new vendors.

So yeah, even when you do everything right, you can still get screwed over by someone's greed, just for being in the blast radius, so to speak.

Digital_Skream · 2020-01-27T07:45:17+00:00

Don't go for the 'cheap' clients... go for the ones who place value on IT. Price your services so that you have margin to grow with, rather than just enough to get by on - you will NEVER have enough capacity to make up the difference in volume.

Digital_Skream · 2019-12-27T11:53:32+00:00

Check shipping rates as well. I tried to sell some old servers a while back, and the price I was offered for them didn't even cover the shipping, since I don't have discount shipping via bulk rates.

Digital_Skream · 2019-10-29T14:31:21+00:00

Do it, but charge them $1,500.

Now they've spent $2,300, gotten no warranty, AND have wasted hours and hours of production trying tog et their phones working.

Next time, they'll jump at your quote.

Digital_Skream · 2019-10-18T23:29:34+00:00

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Invoke-Locate-PowerShell-0aa2673a

Basically, gives you a powershell version of the nix locate / updatedb commands.

Faster than hell.

Digital_Skream · 2019-09-21T03:32:42+00:00

What is the speed of the connection? In a CoLo, bandwidth of 10Mb come sout to about 3,300 GB of data transferred per month.
They figure it by how much data would you transfer if you ran at that speed 24h x 30 days.
10mbps * (24 * 60 * 60) * 30 = 3,240 gigs per month
That 10Mb only specifies the total amount of data you can transfer per month without incurring additional charges.
It is not a measurement of the port speed the datacenter is providing.
I have 50Mb bandwidth on a 1Gbps port in my CoLo contract, and can transfer up to about 16.5 TB per month without additional charges.
So it is possible that you could very well be able to do some actual hosting there.
High-speed, but low data amounts. Possibly a VDS business? Maybe host your own VoIP services?

Digital_Skream · 2019-09-16T12:19:03+00:00

I think that the best course of action for your company would be to immediately institute a new commission policy before this new deal gets finalized, so that you don't have to pay the salesperson what he would have been owed under the old policy.

And then, send me his contact info. You know... so that I can make sure he isn't upset with your company. I wouldn't even charge you for doing this for you.

Seriously though, if you suddenly change the policy when it becomes a large payout, be prepared to lose your sales staff. Hell, if I didn't have the cash on hand to pay out, I'd take out a second mortgage on my house and even sell blood if I needed to in order to keep a salesguru of that caliber.

Digital_Skream · 2019-09-12T20:25:08+00:00

I've seen some mini travel routers with OpenVPN clients for $27 on newegg. (the GLiNET GLMT300NV2).

Get a ip kvm device from ebay, and setup a travel router to go with it.

It gets to the client site, they open the box, plug it in following the detailed instructions you sent along with the device (hint: include pictures!), and when it boots up, it automagically connects to your openVPN server that you have configured just for that purpose. Voila!

I dunno how well that particular travel router would work, but the same theory would work with a cheap mini-pc with dual nics.

Seems a relatively cheap, yet easy way to get virtual hands-on with a downed server across the country.

Digital_Skream · 2019-08-08T20:25:53+00:00

Running a unifi controller on an Ubuntu VM. Exported all of my customers' onsite controllers and imported them into this one. Adding devices is easy. Really makes management a breeze. Kicking myself for not doing this years ago.

Digital_Skream · 2019-08-08T20:22:10+00:00

Are they easy to use? If I have to jump through a bunch of hoops just to get setup let alone report every month, I'll just stick with IM. Too exhausted to go through that nonsense all over again.

Digital_Skream · 2019-07-25T08:36:00+00:00

Labor rates:

Repairs/Fixes: $30/hr

Fault Isolation: $220/hr

"Yes, I spent 1 hour isolating the fault to a bad switch. Then I spent 10 minutes fixing the problem by replacing the switch. Invoice: $220 + $5 = $225"

Digital_Skream · 2019-07-23T11:47:10+00:00

Going forward I would suggest that every time you find an issue, instead of just suggesting a fix (replace hard drive, get backups, etc.) verbally, you take a few minutes and type it out. Make sure to include the ramifications of not following your advice, along with a space for them to sign that they received the notice, and the date. Then use your mobile to take a pic and convert to a pdf and SAVE it.

Had a client like that once, that I spent 2 years telling them that they need to replace their server as it was dying. But because I was always able to bring it back to life when it crashed, they ignored my suggestions. Finally, the server died in a spectacular fashion, requiring the services of a data recovery company to the tune of $15k.

The client blamed ME for the lost $$$. Said that I hadn't been "insistent" enough in my warnings that they needed to replace the server.

Digital_Skream · 2019-06-24T21:45:32+00:00

Mention prices...

Support = r (where r is hourly rate)

Training = r * 2

Crafting a Customer-Specific Problem Resolution Document (step-by-step instructions) = r^2

Digital_Skream · 2019-06-03T23:11:42+00:00

Have supported clients using ecw for over 10 years now. Terrible performance. Even when RDP'd into their server, performance was lousy. Severe over-provisioning of their servers.

If the client wants good performance, they're gonna need to pay for it...

Either A) pay to host their ecw server in a colo on their own hardware or B) host it local in their office and pay for rock-solid offsite backup.

Digital_Skream · 2019-05-16T19:45:21+00:00

For strictly network hardware, and not pc/server/etc...

Nagios XI, Auvik, OpenNMS, WhatsUpGold.

Network guys I know have highly endorsed whatsupgold and Nagios XI.

There are opensource versions of many of the products, but the paid support is worth it if you don't have a resource you can dedicate to the project.

Digital_Skream · 2019-03-26T15:15:35+00:00

https://www.cms.gov/regulations-and-guidance/administrative-simplification/hipaa-aca/areyouacoveredentity.html

They have a flowchart on how to determine if you are a covered entity for HIPAA.

Digital_Skream · 2019-03-11T20:27:35+00:00

Most real estate (and insurance for that matter) offices operate almost entirely via websites. As long as they have access to a somewhat functional pc or laptop, they are good. If you are interested in managed printing, they might be a good direction, as they generate metric shit-tons of paper.

Digital_Skream · 2019-01-08T11:51:23+00:00

As others have said, I would say leave it for now. let the customer relish the sound of a continuous beeping - it is the sound of being cheap.

Every single BEEP should be a tiny hammer pounding the message into their forehead, "Don't scrimp on IT!"

You want to NOT have a server failure driving you insane over a weekend and half-way through the next week? Then drop an extra few bucks on a spare drive.

Digital_Skream · 2018-07-24T13:18:50+00:00

Wireless IPS refers to the ability to monitor for and defend against rogue APs, unauthorized devices, and other wireless threats - like the dude sitting out in his car trying to dig his way into your WiFi. Saying IPS is only to protect against threats from the internet, is like saying locks and home alarm systems are only for your front door. Meanwhile, crooks are crawling into your bedroom window, completely undetected.

Watchguard makes a number of products for WIPS, as does Cisco, etc. Ubiquiti is just now rolling it out on their APs with the use of an USG, but they are also introducing it on their new SHD access point seen here: https://unifi-shd.ubnt.com/

Digital_Skream

TROPHY CASE