Power Speaking Training and Support

RingCentral tips – creating a holiday or vacation greeting

Perhaps you’re hoping to change your greeting during the holidays or add a special greeting for when you’re away, you can follow these steps to create one that gives the message you want to say and then sends people to voicemail.

1) Go to Ringcentral.com and click Login in the upper right, then select Admin Portal

2) Click Phone System at the top, then choose Auto-Receptionist on the left. Choose General Settings. Select “Company Call Handling” to expand it out.
Choose Edit Custom Rule.

3) Turn on an existing Rule if it is there, or choose “Add Rule”
Note: You can also click any of the blue link areas to edit things – like the Time. For example you can change last year’s Winter Holiday message to the new dates by clicking the “Time” section, making your changes, then saving your changes.
If you recorded a message that included the date a prior year, you’ll want to re-record a new message with the new dates, or simply re-record without a date. Skip to step 10 “Record the Message you want to Play” in these directions.

4) Enter a name for the rule, like Thanksgiving, or Vacation, then click Next.

5) Now select Date and/or Time and choose Specific Date Range, then enter the dates you want to have this greeting apply — for example 11/23/2022 to 11/28/2022. Click next.

6) Now you choose what happens – select Voicemail, then click Select extension under the “Message-only extension” option.

7) Select an existing extension if you’ve done this in prior years or want to reuse one – like an extension called “Vacation” — otherwise click + New Message-Only Extension in the upper right.

8) Give the extension a name, like Thanksgiving (or Vacation), give it an extension number away from others you might use – like 46, then enter an email address where these voicemails would deliver to. Click Save when you’re done.

9) Select your extension from the choices and click “Done” on the right. Then press the “Save” option in the lower right. The next steps will be to record what the greeting says.

Recording the message you want to play

10) On the left side you’ll see a section called “Groups” – click on that, then click on “Message-Only Extensions”

11) Click on the name of the extension you just created – for example “Thanksgiving.”

12) Click Voicemail & Notifications.
Optional – to deliver these holiday or vacation messages to your main extension: Look for “Send voicemail to” and select Another Extension. Select your main company extension (often the extension 0).
Required – Next click the Edit option on the left – this is where you’ll be recording your holiday or vacation greeting so get what you’re going to say ready!

13) Under the “Set Greeting” option click Default and instead choose “Custom.”

14) Follow the prompts to record a greeting – you can have the system call your phone number by entering your phone number under Call Me At. Or you can have it record using your computer’s microphone. Or if you’ve already crafted an audio file with your greeting/recording you can choose the “Importing” option. Once you’ve followed through the steps, click done.

15) Click Save so your changes save. You’re all set!

How to shrink a PDF when you crafted a doc in Word or PowerPoint

Sometimes you need to save a smaller version of your file or presentation in order to get it over to someone else. Email messages often only allow you to send emails with attachments of a certain size, like 5MB.

Follow the steps below to use the Reduce File Size feature in the newer versions of Word and PowerPoint so you can get smaller PDF files and also smaller word and powerpoint documents as well.

  1. With your document open in Word or PowerPoint, click the File menu in the upper left and select “Reduce File Size
  • 2. On the dialog box that comes up, select an appropriate setting for what the other person will be using the document for – most often using “On Screen (150 ppi)” will be appropriate for most uses. Also keep the checkbox on “Delete cropped areas of pictures” — doing this will remove all the extra information from parts of the picture that you may not be displaying in your document.
  • 3. Choose File–> Save As, then select the File Format “PDF.” Give your file a name and save it somewhere you can find it.
  • 4. That’s it! You now have a smaller PDF file without any need for using Acrobat Professional or other tools.

If you’d like to try and shrink the PDF even further, you can follow my guide on compressing a PDF using PDFCompress located here: https://wizdomonwheels.com/how-to-shrink-a-pdf-file-on-a-mac-without-needing-to-purchase-adobe-acrobat-professional/

Formatting a drive for Time Machine use

Occasionally you may purchase a drive that comes pre-formatted for use on Windows and will need to erase it to use properly on the Mac. Follow these directions to get your drive formatted for the Mac.

If you already know how to use Disk Utility, the format information to choose is APFS or APFS (encrypted) and the scheme should be set to GUID Partition Map. Optionally for a traditional portable hard drive you can also select the format Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Once you have connected the new drive to your computer, follow these steps below.

  1. Search your computer for Disk Utility — the easiest way is to click the magnifying glass (Spotlight) icon in the upper right of your computer and type Disk Utility. Once you’ve found it you can press the return key on your keyboard or double click on Disk Utility from the list of results.
  • 2. Click the View menu at the top of the screen and select “Show All Devices” or look in the screenshot below for this icon and click it, then select the same option.
  • 3. Select the Drive you want to erase on the left side under the headline “External.” In the case of the Samsung T7 portable SSD drive you can choose the option that reads “Samsung PSSD T7 Media” at the top of the list of External.
  • 4. Click the Erase option near the upper right of the window, give the drive a name like “Backup” and then choose APFS as the format, and GUID Partition Map as the Scheme.
  • 5. After the drive erases you can close the Disk Utility window. Next click the Apple Menu in the upper left and select “System Preferences”
  • 6. Click Time Machine from the options — if you don’t see the option you can click the Back arrow in the upper left or the series of boxes in the upper left, then select Time Machine.
  • 7. Choose “Select Disk”
  • 8. Select the drive you erased from the list of choices. It should be named whatever you named the drive in Step 4. Click “Use Disk” if you don’t plan to encrypt the drive, and if you do — click the “Encrypt” option in the lower left and enter a password of your choice when it asks. Encryption can help protect your information if the drive ever falls into malicious hands.

UniFi Dream Machine setup issues and potential resolution

During the setup of various UniFi/Ubiquiti Dream Machines, I occasionally run into setup issues where the device is unable to get an internet connection during the setup phase. Often these are units that have sat on the shelf for a little while and have old firmware loaded onto them. In order to get them fully operational you’ll need to go through some pretty advanced steps to load the firmware onto the units manually.

One method to tell ahead of time if you will have issues with this is if the Dream Machine has a Test Date of 5/17/2021 or earlier.

  1. Get a computer with an ethernet cable connection either through a USB to Ethernet adapter or a direct ethernet connection. The next steps will be written using a Mac for setup purposes – adjust steps as needed for a PC/Linux.
  2. Download the latest firmware update available for the Dream Machine and rename the file to simply dreammachine.bin for simplicity of Terminal commands yet to come.
    Details on this step: Go to https://www.ui.com/download/unifi Or browse ui.com then click Support at the top right. Click Downloads. Scroll to bottom of the page and choose “View full file list.” Click UniFi at the top bar then look for UniFi OS – Dream Machine (currently 1.11.0 as of 2/28/2022) then click download. Accept the terms and click Download File. Look in your downloads folder and rename the recent .bin file as dreammachine.bin
  3. Connect the Dream Machine to your internet connection with the WAN port at the bottom of the Dream Machine, then connect an ethernet cable from any of the 4 ports into your ethernet enabled computer.
  4. Open the Terminal application on your computer (you can search for it using Spotlight magnifying glass in the upper right or browse to the Terminal in your Applications folder Utilities.
  5. In the terminal window paste this command and press return: 
    scp ~/Downloads/dreammachine.bin [email protected]:~/dreammachine.bin
  6. Type yes and press return when it says the RSA key fingerprint.. are you sure you want to continue. *If there is an error about the fingerprint not matching, see troubleshooting below these steps. This likely occurred because you’ve tried these steps multiple times on multiple Dream Machines and need to erase the old SSH key.
  7. For the root password type in: ubnt
  8. Wait for the transfer to complete – you’ll see a percentage going up to 100% and then you’ll return to the terminal prompt after it’s done.
  9. Next we’ll want to ssh into the device and apply the update. To do this use the command: ssh [email protected]
  10. Password as a reminder is: ubnt
    Then paste or type this command: ubnt-upgrade ~/dreammachine.bin
  11. Wait for a few minutes as the Dream Machine upgrades itself – after the startup chime you can go back to your iPhone or Android phone and set up the Dream Machine as you would normally do.

* If the RSA key fingerprint “doesn’t match” during step 6, you’ll want to go into your user folder on the computer, show invisible files if you don’t have them visible yet (shortcut command is Command, Shift, period). Look for a folder named .ssh and open it. Delete the known_hosts file, then try step 6 again.

Setting up MalwareBytes on the Mac

These steps will cover the download, install, and registration of MalwareBytes on the Mac. Some steps are optional depending on the version of the system software you’re currently running.
Step 1) Open Safari and go to www.malwarebytes.com

Safari browser tab with MalwareBytes.com in address field

Step 2) Click the Free Download link on the page

Introducing Malwarebytes 4.0 page with Free Download link and See Pricing link. Press Free Download.

Step 3) Click the Allow on the dialog box (Skip this step on older systems or ones this dialog does not show up on)

Do you want to allow downloads on Malwarebytes.com dialog, choose Allow.

Step 4) Look in the upper right and click the Download icon, then double click to open the Malwarebytes pkg file.

Downward pointing arrow - the downloads icon in the upper right of the Safari window - click the icon and double-click MalwareBytes.pkg installer package.

Step 5) Click continue several times on the install window that appears.

Welcome to MalwareBytes for Mac installer window, click continue.

Important information window from installer, click Continue.

Step 6) Click Agree

To continue installing the software, terms of software license agreement, click Agree.

Step 7) Click Continue

Standard install on Macintosh HD window, click Install.

Step 8 ) Click Close  

Installer window, done installing, click Close.

Step 9) Click Move to Trash

Do you want to move MalwareBytes installer to trash? Click Move to Trash.

Step 10) Click Get Started

Welcome to Malwarebytes screen - click Get Started.

Step 11) Click for Personal Computer

Where are you installing Malwarebytes - click Select under the Personal Computer section.

Step 12) Click Use Malwarebytes Free

Step 13) Click Allow to give permission

Give Permission window, click Allow.

Step 14) Click Open Security Preferences on the dialog box that appears

System Extension Blocked window, click Open Security Preferences.

Step 15) Click the lock in the bottom left on the Security & Privacy System Preference window that came up

System Preferences window with Security & Privacy open. Click lock in lower left of window.

Step 16) Enter your computer’s username and password. If the username appears blank, try entering PSI Admin or your own name with Admin at the end

Enter your computer's password on the Username and Password dialog box.

Step 17) Click Allow on the right side of the window

Bottom right side of the Security & Privacy system preference window, click the

Step 18) Click the Privacy tab near the top of the window

At the top of the Security & Privacy window, click the Privacy tab.

Step 19) Scroll down the page a bit and look for Full Disk Access — click on it when you find it. On the right side look for “Malwarebytes Protection” and check the box to the left of it.

Privacy window, click the

Step 20) Optionally, look in the upper right of your screen and click “Don’t Allow” on the Malwarebytes Agent Notifications window.

In the upper right of the screen will appear a notification that asks Don't Allow or Allow MalwareBytes agent notifications. Click Don't Allow.

Step 21) Look on your dock for the blue MalwareBytes icon and click it to open the software

Blue MalwareBytes icon on the dock - click on it.

Step 22) Click “Scan” at the bottom of the window and see if anything bad is found — If anything is found, choose to clean it up and let David Rutan or Ralf [email protected] know. Consider taking a photograph with your phone or a screenshot with the computer and sending a picture of what MalwareBytes found to David Rutan or Ralf.

Malwarebytes window, click the
By |2023-06-15T13:36:48-07:00December 13, 2019|Power Speaking, Tech Walkthrough Guides|0 Comments
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