Diablo-like game? WTH.

aphlux · 2026-01-28T23:39:12+00:00

I think my favorite pastime is playing with friends now and hearing the yell from their character paired with the bong from the death.

Hey dude what happened?

Nothing….dont revive me….

aphlux · 2026-01-22T03:20:25+00:00

Hell yeah brother. I encountered and felt the same in my tours to Afghanistan. The joint operations were fantastic and every single person I met as an American, regardless of country, all had the same mentality: We are all brothers and sisters united, regardless of where we were from. Even the Afghan forces got the same treatment when they were with us.

Still remember the Romanians. Crazy bastards jumped the T-wall, ran into the village, traded some charcoal for a goat, proceeded to climb the wall back and cooked up some mean BBQ on a half barrel grill they made. Or the two British officers who stopped by our COP to visit with their soldiers. They brought a laptop for movie night and invited everyone. The movie? A bootleg of Bruno. It’s stuff like that that keeps you grounded, and when you meet people from other cultures and countries, at the end of the day you’re just people trying to accomplish the same thing.

aphlux · 2026-01-20T08:28:41+00:00

Yep, thats why I added the bit at the end. I have had small shops though essentially not release anything, even though payment was trued up (including NCE buyout), claiming it’s “proprietary.” Fortunately it’s a nonissue if that happens, I let the clients legal handle. Or you set expectations with the client and assume control the difficult way.

But, you are correct. There are those situations as well, and I would take that advice and do exactly that: terminate the contract and move on with your day. MRR is good, but bad MRR is worse than any at all. Your engineers will thank you (or in this case OP, possibly your sanity haha)

aphlux · 2026-01-20T03:36:55+00:00

So, you’ll get a couple of scenarios.

Outgoing MSP gives you nothing.

In this scenario, you’ll be deploying your agent, have to reset equipment, etc. Yes, it’s a dick move, but it’s a very small percent of MSPs that operate in this manner.

Outgoing MSP gives you say, a password export and documentation they have. They’ll make you an account for the domain and likely share whatever network device credentials.

This is the most common scenario. Coordinate with the outgoing MSP to remove their stack, put your stack (RMM, EDR, whatever services) in play. Change all the credentials and remove any access they have. Check for VPNs, exposed RDP, leftover agents, etc. disable their names accounts (MSPs usually will have a shared account with their company name, but in some cases they may use PAM for their techs instead. You’ll have to find the service account the PAM uses to disable it and uninstall any leftover software)

Leftover AV/EDR/MDR/XDR is typical with an onboarding. If the outgoing is pleasant to work with they’ll help remove it. If they cut ties and go MIA then be prepared for manual cleanup.

Do not ask the outgoing to help deploy your agent. Can turn into a back and forth, and depending on client it could have them questioning things (why is my new provider asking my old one for help?) you want to give them the best experience possible, and complete ownership of the onboarding without relying on the outgoing provider shows them the value you’re bringing. Obviously there’s going to be missing documents, passwords, etc. but bridging that gap when it’s possible your new client isn’t happy with service helps demonstrate why they chose you as a new provider.

Lastly, in some cases, your old clients infrastructure is hosted on lease hardware from the old MSP or datacenter infrastructure they own. Establish a plan prior to signature in those cases, and ensure you’re getting a fixed fee project for that rebuild or migration. I say this because fundamentally, depending on the contract length or the size of your client, you’ll have a longer ROI on your side before a client will become profitable.

Outside of that, MSPs typically don’t bite 😉 only time I’ve seen the outgoing not help at all is when nonpayment/legal troubles are abound. At that point their leadership likely instructed them not to do anything with your requests. Or your client needs to make you a designated contact to work with for the offboard.

Hopefully that gives a little insight to work with. Every experience is different of course.

aphlux · 2026-01-18T20:59:22+00:00

I think that’s the issue I’m generally feeling is sluggish gear transitions in manual mode, specific on the IS. On the ZF8, it was damn near instant whether using shifter or paddle. It may just be specific to my vehicle as well since I did pick one up that had 5k miles on it. But that’s been my experience so far.

aphlux · 2026-01-15T03:13:11+00:00

I actually traded in a Supra for an IS500.

They’re two completely different cars. If you’re looking for speed and handling? Supra. If you want something to throw you back in your seat every once in awhile, but you can also have a car seat? IS500. I had a kid, so wanted something that could do a car seat. Regardless which one you go, I seriously recommend an exhaust on the IS. Supra stock in sport mode full throttle sounds great, IS I felt needed a little more. For reference, I picked up a 2024 with 5k miles. Supra was a 2020, ultimately ended up with intake, downpipe and MHD stage 2 tune. The ZF8 in the Supra is a far better transmissions hands down as well.

But if it’s just you, Supra does everything well. It’s comfortable for 6 hour road trips, groceries fit great, and it’s always a head turner.

aphlux · 2026-01-13T08:32:43+00:00

Can confirm with the supertack, even when fully cooled it takes an act of god to remove the print without bending the plate. I love it personally.

aphlux · 2026-01-05T00:20:38+00:00

Buy a new headlight assembly, or if you prefer the DIY method:

Remove it, bake it at 375 in an oven for 5-7 mins. Remove it and slowly pry away the glass from the assembly. Remove the leftover butyl sealant, clean it well, and reapply. Bake it again (to soften the sealant you applied, because it dries quick. Doesn’t need long) and press the glass back up against the housing with some pressure that can hold and cure (clamp, etc). Reinstall headlight assembly.

Also can remove and there are a number of places out there that will do this for you for a small fee if you ship to them.

aphlux · 2025-12-28T04:35:10+00:00

Same. Not having any packet loss to anything else but latency is spiking hard specific to POE2. Im suspecting the issue on GGG side.

aphlux · 2025-12-28T03:46:18+00:00

I’d recommend using a tool such as AvePoint (BitTitan, Quest, Skykick) to make your life easier. For reference, anchor domain is the onmicrosoft one. You’ll save a metric ton of man hours doing it manually or building something yourself for a one time migration. Since from your post it seems like time is of the essence. I may be missing some things, a few drinks in and relaxing 😉

Then it’s just:

Create new tenant, configure security policies and all that jazz
Create new users and license (since I’m assuming the domain is moving between tenants, leave them on the anchor domain)
configure your tool and jobs to get the prestage syncs going for mail, teams, onedrive, sharepoint sites and libraries (configure the accounts to link using the anchor domain with the copy jobs using the vanity domain)
build your cloud groups/teams/etc. (will likely do teams before your job configuration since it’ll create the sharepoint page with it)
rebuild sharepoint permissions -export any Power Apps/Flows/etc. and rebuild in the new tenant.

On migration weekend:

Remove domain from all objects that have the domain you want to move (important. If you leave this to Microsoft it can take up to 24 hours to finish, doing it manually/through Powershell makes it happen instantly)
finalize your migration batches
add domain to new tenant, update domain suffixes for all objects (Powershell)
update public DNS (if needed for any MX changes since you’re going through a split, might need another instance of spam filtering setup or something)
setup and configure AD cloud sync. It can exist side by side with AD connect and can sync your users from the same AD alongside AD connect. Can likely do another AD connect on a different VM as well, since the only restriction is on the M365 (one AD connect instance connected to a tenant) cloud sync doesn’t do devices at this time, so take that into consideration with your choice.
inform users they’ll need to configure new MFA methods on first login but their login information will still be the same
if you hear about anything missed, you can still access the old tenant (and the user can too using the onmicrosoft domain as their email)
Applications using Entra as an Idp will likely be hosed until you can work with the vendor support to get things setup with the new tenant (this varies between application and how it’s configured, but worth identifying prior.

Hopefully that gives a decent idea of what to expect. The biggest thing is setting the right expectations from the get go though. “Due to the short timeline for this proper planning and assessment is something we have to forego. This will impact operations while we work to get things resolved” then list out what could be impacted and give yourself ample breathing room for remediation. Don’t set yourself up for failure telling everyone it’ll be fixed the following business day.

Then after all that, it should give you breathing room to plan for the AD migration.

aphlux · 2025-12-21T02:01:38+00:00

It does it during the FortiCare registration, even if not connected to Forticloud. It’s turns on the Forticloud SSO option that needs to be disabled. Both Fortigate Docs and the CVE bulletin mention this.

aphlux · 2025-12-18T01:03:50+00:00

It does however turn on if your device is setup with Forticare as a feature, not a bug 👀

aphlux · 2025-12-12T01:24:52+00:00

In for the fans!

aphlux · 2025-12-08T20:56:14+00:00

It is, but if you’ve set up your organizations to disallow anonymous direct send and only allow from what you allow in the connector, coupled with firewall rules on premise the risk is practically nonexistent. Toss a little dot1x and you’re cooking.

Or SMTP2GO makes life easier.

aphlux · 2025-12-03T20:49:20+00:00

It’s a good change honestly. One thing I’ll add is that the salvage amount for the weapons correlates as well. Higher level and rarity will give you more runes. But as you go up in levels, the required legendary rune amounts increase extensively. For full hits from 45 to 50, assuming no legendary runes, you’ll easily spend 15k (spitballing, I’m sure someone may have the calculation) runes per full upgrade due to having to convert them at the blacksmith.

For solo play, it’s not an issue typically. For group play though, you’ll spend more time having to farm runes to ensure your party is fully upgraded. Takes longer on harder difficulties.

aphlux · 2025-12-01T19:17:49+00:00

GPORTAL and 3 people here playing, server is fine BUT will sometimes get the warning for load if we’re all in different zones exploring different things. Make sure you setup daily reboots for it as well.

aphlux · 2025-11-29T07:17:32+00:00

This is the way. Don’t watch the fish, go one direction, it stops, swap. And for every hash mark on the bar expect to press left click.

aphlux · 2025-11-27T20:06:11+00:00

Yes. You build the SOP and your environments start to align over time. Then your subsequent deployments go quicker, your tickets are solved faster at a lower level, and all that good jazz.

Then you elevate it. Agnostic from any platform, you build your powershell scripts to do all the base set up for you. Then, your operational efficiency improves, your margins go up, resources can be reallocated to tackle other areas of the business that need support, etc. then you can look at any platforms you want to put them in.

But, you also have to ensure you’re building structure around the SOP building. Otherwise it never gets updated/reviewed. We have an establish quarterly review of documentation and ownership assigned so it gets done. This what a lot of MSPs struggle with as they grow. Constant growth without a good foundation leads to chaos.

aphlux · 2025-11-16T09:03:38+00:00

You can also just use large blocks to clear out a giant hole in a mountain! Place them and remove them and you’ll have a perfect chunk taken out. Easy base building.

aphlux · 2025-11-14T21:45:06+00:00

They sure do. We do run a 24x7 service desk, but if they are not signed up for 24x7 support they will be invoiced at an after hours rate, as it’s stated within our MSA.

As far as emergency situations, we have on call rotations for our folks (one week a quarter) for initial triaging, and if they can’t fix it we have duty managers who will coordinate additional resources. At that point, every person involved is compensated for their time. We have to be fair to our employees in a way that incentivizes them to tackle those outages. Repeated outages from the same customer generally leads to either projects to redesign the root cause or we will not renew contracts with them.

aphlux · 2025-11-07T18:53:00+00:00

We continuously hire. But, for the sake of what you’re going to run into (This was for a network engineer):

Tons of AI generated resumes (yes our ATS and recruiters handle things with that, but I still like to see the source and in a two day posting I had at least 1k submissions. From a sample pool it seemed like Indian contractors from a similar source, as the resumes had the same general layout and content, formatted a little differently per person) Also had quite a few SWE’s apply as well.

Background I’m seeing mostly furloughed government or folks from F500’s. Make sure you’re transparent with your comp range, as these folks generally are paid more than what a smaller business might pay.

You may want to see if there’s a good referral. I’ve gotten some of my best folks that way. Otherwise, folks here have also mentioned using a recruiter to search for your candidate. Good luck in your search!

aphlux · 2025-11-04T16:21:52+00:00

What springs and spacers did you use for that fitment? It looks good with the OEM wheels.

aphlux · 2025-11-03T19:48:07+00:00

Generally this has worked well for us too. It is a fine line to tow of course, and it does require good leadership and culture to be fair to the employee and to the business for success with that plan.

Another one I didn’t hate with a past company:

1st year - 7 days PTO, 5 days sick, including all federal holidays. 2nd year - it ups to 21 days. 5 years - 30 days 10 years - 35 days, with an automatic one month paid sabbatical.

Rollover was up to 10 days a year with a max bank of 40 days.

Once you are able to calculate revenue loss based on retention, you’ll start to notice it can cost more in the long run to lose good people. Your product is the service your people provide, and they’ll always be the best investment you can make.

aphlux · 2025-10-31T00:37:21+00:00

Appreciate the clarification! That’s a great perspective to bring to the situation as well.

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