Our mission is to help businesses like yours increase productivity and get more out of the technology you invest in.
We specialize in solutions that safeguard and protect your data and keep operations running smoothly.
Managed IT Services
Intelligent remote monitoring, proactive maintenance, and behind-the-scenes remote support.
Network Security
Protect your business from threats like malware, viruses, phishing attacks, hackers and other threads.
Backup & Disaster Recovery
Ensure peace-of-mind in any situation with the most complete data backup solution available.
Cloud Hosting Solutions
Reduce infrastructure costs, collaborate, and get more done with our unique cloud solutions.
When you just want IT to work!
There are a lot of computer shops out there that you can call up to fix an issue or install a piece of equipment. They might be able to get you out of crisis mode, but they aren’t looking at the full picture.
At 415 IT, we understand business. We consult. We provide solutions to solve everyday challenges. We just happen to fix computers as well.
We believe (and have proven) that if you proactively manage technology, run maintenance religiously, and monitor a business network, everyday issues and downtime will be greatly reduced.
This is what makes us different than your typical tech support company. Sure, we can fix computer issues when you have them, but our specialty is preventing them in the first place.
Are you looking for a partner you can trust your IT with? Sign up for a FREE IT Assessment to get started today.
What Our Clients Say
Latest Blogs
A Watch Party is where you gather some friends or family to stream a show or movie together, from different locations. Some services, like Amazon video, have adopted this to help us get through the global pandemic.
Everyone Needs Disney+
First of all, all parties involved will need their own Disney+ account. Unfortunately, Disney+ just stopped offering the free trial. I think they said “You’ll Be Back,” to everyone who let their subscription lapse after The Mandalorian was over.
Just log in to https://www.disneyplus.com/ and subscribe. Verizon has a promo right now, so if you recently bought a phone or signed up for Verizon Internet service, you might want to check to see if you are eligible.
Everyone Needs to Install a Browser Plugin
Next, all parties involved will need to install a Chrome browser plugin. If you only care about doing a watch party with Disney Plus, you can use the Disney Plus Party plugin. If you want to host watch parties with Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and Hulu as well, you can check out Vemos.
Either way, as the host, you’ll want to pick one, install it, and ensure everyone else gets it before the show starts, to avoid technical issues.
Both plugins allow you to sync up the video with your watch party and includes the ability to chat with each other during the movie. Once the Disney Plus Party plugin is installed, click the icon it adds to the top right of your Chrome browser and create an account.
Once you’ve followed the steps to create an account, start up Disney+ in Chrome and start a movie. Then click the Disney Plus Party button and Host a Movie. It will ask you to create a name for the room.
Your friends will need to install the plugin, create an account, and click Join a Movie and type in the name of your room.
From there, the host will be able to play the movie and it should sync across everyone else’s device. You can pause it (so nobody asks, “What’d I Miss?” if they Take a Break), or you can watch the whole movie Non-Stop. There is one caveat though… as of right now, Disney Plus Party is only free for the first four hours per week. Hamilton’s run time on Disney Plus is just under three hours, so it’s a good way to try out the plugin before committing to spending money on it.
We hope everyone in your watch party is Satisfied!
Want more tips and tricks? Stay tuned to What Comes Next by subscribing to our blog. If you need a Right Hand Man for your IT, give us a call at (415) 295-4898.
I think we did a pretty good job with the Hamilton song title puns, but feel free to take a shot in the comments!
As with anything, your backup solution isn’t infallible. A lot can go wrong when your backup is running, for example:
...and more!
Many backup solutions have a verification process to attempt to verify that a backup was taken properly and spit back any errors in the backup software if anything was found. Even the old, slow tape backup systems from a decade ago often had features like this. The problem is that sometimes with tape, the tape could be degraded to the point that it passes the verification test but ends up being partially or fully unreadable when it comes time to pull the data.
If you can’t tell, we don't prefer tape backup. It’s slow, arduous, and not very reliable, and the restoration process takes an incredibly long time compared to more modern methods.
Hard drive-based backup, including NAS (Network Attached Storage) and BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery) solutions are much more reliable from a technical standpoint, but could still suffer issues if not configured properly or if they run into roadblocks like network connectivity issues.
Testing your backup could also reveal files, applications, or databases that aren’t getting backed up properly. It’s easy to configure your backup, and then install some new software later down the road and forget to make sure the data is getting backed up.
You want your data to be backed up and complete so in the event you need it, you can restore everything and be up and running quickly.
Essentially, you’ll want to deploy your backup in a virtual environment and run off of it. This simulates a catastrophic data loss event and lets you and your staff see if they can get by based on the data stored in the backup.
Not all backup solutions allow you to do this. Tape backups, for example, can’t be run or accessed off of the tape, so you would actually need to extract the archived data from the tape and redeploy it on a secondary or virtualized server. This could take several hours or even days to do, and by then the backup won’t be up-to-date.
Our BDR solution, however, allows us to virtualize your server and spin everything up. The process looks something like this:
If it were a real hardware disaster, your BDR could serve as kind of a spare tire for your network, taking over for the server that had the issue. Things might be a little slower until the downed server is repaired or replaced, but at least operations can still run.
If you’ve been backing up your data (and you absolutely, definitely, positively, without-a-doubt NEED to), you should also be testing the consistency of your backup. Let’s take a look at your backup and run a test to see if everything is actually getting backed up so you aren’t surprised when you actually need it.
Give us a call at (415) 295-4898 to get started.
As was said in the FBI’s announcement:
“As the public increases its use of mobile banking apps, partially due to increased time at home, the FBI anticipates cyber actors will exploit these platforms.”
We recommend that you take a few minutes and read the entire announcement, as it has a lot of information about these threats and quite a few tips that can help protect your mobile banking as well as many other applications.
If you don’t have the chance to go over all of this now, we’ve put together some of the most important tips to abide by if you’re trying to protect yourself and your financial interests.
2FA, short for Two-Factor Authentication, and often seen nowadays as MFA or Multi-Factor Authentication, is effectively the addition of another identifier to ensure that someone trying to access an account is who they claim to be. Via texting, emailing, or generating a unique code through an application like Google Authenticator, Authy, Duo, or LastPass Authenticator, a user is given the key to open the additional lock on their accounts.
Any account you use should be protected by 2FA/MFA, especially those that deal with your finances or other sensitive information.
You should always set up 2-Factor Authentication on any account you have, especially if it deals with sensitive information or your money.
Make sure that any passwords you use are sufficiently secure for your purposes. Rather than using common phrases or easy-to-guess combinations, like your birthday or a pet’s name, use a unique string of characters, numbers, and symbols for each account, or a passphrase consisting of unrelated words.
In what is probably the best piece of advice you can give someone who does business online in 2020, if you don’t know who sent it or where it will take you, don’t click on it. In fact, if you aren’t 100 percent sure about something, don’t click on it. Chances are your bank has a mobile app. Download that one from a reputable app store. They may have the link on their website, but if it doesn’t take you to the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, don’t click on any link. Your bank has spent significant resources to make sure that their app has the security needed, don’t risk using any other app.
Confirmation that it was your bank sending you information, or that their app isn’t working properly at the moment won’t take more than a simple phone call to confirm. Go to their official website and get the customer assistance number.
We’re really glad the FBI covered this tip too, as it’s often glossed over. If you have any suspicion that something is strange or not working correctly, just call your bank. Go to their official website, or use the number on the back of your card or from a statement. You don’t want to be fooled into making a mistake that puts your finances in the crosshairs of hackers or scammers. Your bank will never ask you for your name or password over the phone, so never give that information out.
Keep your money out of the hands of cybercriminals by being vigilant and understanding the signs of a scam. If you would like any more information about keeping your finances secure, call the IT security professionals at 415 IT today at (415) 295-4898.
Latest Blog
Latest News
