ISOLATING the Recording Computer from the NET.

  • Thread starter Thread starter rayc
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rayc

rayc

retroreprobate
Hi Folks,
From the word go I've isolated my recording computer from the internet.
It's not online, not networked to any other computers and any digital stuff brought to it from online goes through AVG first.
For uploading purposes I use a memory stick & AVG protocols again.
Am I overdoing it?
What level of security do you use to protect your music, projects &, I guess as an afterthought, copyright?
 
wow, i was seriously laughing out loud as i was reading your post... perhaps a sign that you are overdoing it? Seriously, if you are just a home recorder like most of the rest of us, your story is even more laughable! I hope you are at least a professional of some sort who has many clients whose privacy and songs you would like to protect, hehe. But I guess if that's how you like to keep your computer secure, whatever.
 
SKYflyer said:
wow, i was seriously laughing out loud as i was reading your post... perhaps a sign that you are overdoing it? Seriously, if you are just a home recorder like most of the rest of us, your story is even more laughable! I hope you are at least a professional of some sort who has many clients whose privacy and songs you would like to protect, hehe. But I guess if that's how you like to keep your computer secure, whatever.
Click to expand...

Or maybe he just wants to keep it spam free.
 
I kind of understand your logic, but only ever so slightly to a paranoid extent.

You don't have to go cold turkey on the internet for your recording computer? What if you need to update your computer from the internet? Transfer files via another computer quickly and efficiently? Get an answer on an error thats popped up?

Unless you don't have a firewall and or antivirus scanner on your computer and your a "oh, click me, click me" fan, there should be no apparent reason to isolate your computer from the internet,

what are you concerned about exactly?
hahaha while reading i got this whole 24-jack-bauer style situation in my mind. Then again i've been watching too much 24 recently...

Anywho...

As far as security goes, im just on trend micro PC-Cillin security 2006, the whole shibang i guess, anti-virus scanner, email scanner, spyware scanner. Other tools i've use(d) is Ad-Aware to remove the usual cookies and used to use zonealarm for free, i guess thats about it. Speaking of which, i think the new Windows Vista is supposed to be built on server 2003 or something? That'll be good for windows users as far as security goes.
 
No isolation here. I have DSL, but it goes through a D-Link router which has a pretty decent firewall. I run Norton AV fulltime, and I have WEP enabled on our wireless network. I also have MAC filtering setup on our Router so only our PCs can connect to our network.

If I'm doing serious recording, I just disable my network connection.

I periodically run SpyBot Search and Destroy and AdAware to keep things clean. I used to use ZoneAlarm but it interfered with Drive sharing on our little network (which is how our nightly backups are run) I believe the D-Link HW Firewall is sufficient for our needs.
 
zekthedeadcow
Yours is the best answer at this atge.
I only added the copyright as an afterthought - I actually only thought of it as I'd finished typing but it's an issue for some folk - with some of my stuff on Soundclick I've already left myself open to misuse, unlikely as it is.
Having lost 2 hard drives to a blaster worm - older machines that a) couldn't upgrade to XP & b) were only running Norton through being online I overly cautious of attacks on m/soft based systems.
I'm glad you had a laugh. Obviously I've stepped a little beyond the pale.
 
I don't know if I'd worry so much about security as I would about resources. I personally think you should run your music computer as bare bones as possible, and off the net. It's just more shit to mess it up. All I have on mine from a fresh install is the OS, the music apps I use and that's it. No antivirus or anything. Then I went through the registry and got rid of all the crap that runs in the back ground that is unneccessary.
 
The only real reason i would isolate from the net is because like promythia said, resources. I only ever sometimes shut down more applications/processes to enable more CPU resources.

Really, unless your doing anything really drastic on the net i don't really think theres any real reason to isolate, but i understand your concern anywho :)
 
I use a laptop with built in wireless. I keep it turned off so I don't have to run virus protection and all that resource eating stuff. I do connect on occasion to get updates but that's about it.
I'm a little worried about bad stuff getting in but I mostly want to keep the machine running as bare bones as possible.
 
I have two computers in my home studio. The main DAW never sees the net, and gets data loads via thumb drive.
The 2nd machine, which is mostly for running Gigastudio, has removable hard drives to physically isolate it's DAW environment from it's network/games/etc environment.
I simply don't want to be bothered with the task of maintaining virus definition files and all of that to keep my DAWs clean. There's an old saying... "you're not paranoid if they really are out to get you".
 
Robert D said:
I have two computers in my home studio. The main DAW never sees the net, and gets data loads via thumb drive.
Click to expand...

I sort of use this method.

I use another laptop for work and for general internet surfing. If I find a free VST I want I just download it on my craptop and test it there. If it is free of virus then I put it on a CD rewritable and load it onto the main computer.
 
The two recording comps I use downstairs are bare bones. All unrelated stuff has been stripped out.One running just Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.3, Waverepair & Media Player in win XP. The other does the same in '98 (Pro Audio 9.3 runs extremely well under 98 & there's very little RAM required to run the host if only I could run these progs on 95 with , what was it 8M required?). So almost nothing is running in the background & the applications I use are well suited to their tasks so I have plenty of HD space & RAM to do what I need.
As I said I've lost 2 HDDs worth of stuff in the past through virus probs & don't want to have that happen again.
It seems some of you are similarly cautious.
 
i have windows installed twice on my laptop, then i just dual boot with a boot-loader. On winXP has all my general use apps, that i know will eventually get riddled with viruses, and will need to be reformmated in a year. The other winXP has very limited hardware installed, and zero eye-candy turned on. It only has audio software on it, and no internet access at all.
 
aahh!!! I'm not the only 'over-protective' one then!!! Ace!! LOL!! :)
I test all my plug-ins and shit on my laundry computer (which is on the net), then if I'm happy, to RWCD then onto my DAW..(which is not on da net).
Been burnt too many times. as I don't use AV software!! (I still hate it).
 
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