studio pcs & internet access do not mix

thebookofbob

ok, I'm just the other side of a costly rebuild of the main PC here so thought I'd share the prob to hopefully prevent anyone else from making the same mistake.
I used to run a seperate music PC which was not networked but recent hassle of upgrading plugins online etc. etc.. & the old room being small & the heat generated by to PCs meant I gave in to pressure.
I had it all hooked up the usual way through a router to our broadband connection but recently I relocated the gear & running a cable wasn't practicle to where the wireless connection came in.
To cut a long story short. Weird stuff started happening in XP when I installed the usb wireless TX.. XP started to freeze , I thought the PC had a virus, it wouldn't reboot, XP installed with a repair wouldn't work & in the end I had to reformat. I didn't loose any work as I take a HDD image every week but I had automatically assumed a virus or malware. It was yet another reason to keep the main music PC seperated..
For those who can't I'd recommend VMware .. Install a virtual machine with it's own operating system that shares recources with the main PC but looks like you're running a main machine.

So caution is the work.. now where the f*ck is that headphone adaptor ;-)

frobisher

A dedicated PC is a bit of a must have if you want to be as safe as you can.

squibs

I would suggest networking the PC via ethernet and only connecting the cable when you need to be online. A virus scanner, firewall, spywared detector, root kit detector and a full patched OS are a must. A non-networked machine is not really feasible these days. And VMware is not suitable for use for realtime applications like modern sequencing software - there is a performance hit.

teamdresch

squibs wrote:

A non-networked machine is not really feasible these days.

My machine is prefectly feasible.
If I need to download or upload, I use a laptop and then transfer with a USB key.
I'd certainly rather very mild inconvenience to a PC that crashes or worse.

Doctor J

Agreed. A non-networked machine is probably as feasible as it has ever been, given the cost of computer hardware these days - ie it has never been cheaper. After trying to juggle everyday useage and studio s/w on the same machine I gave up and set up a PC specifically for audio work, with network and other non-essential services and hardware disabled and use a USB key for any updates and new installs. The result is better performance and way better reliability. Can't believe I didn't do it sooner.

Another option is to set up two partitions on the hard disk and dual boot. Keep one partition for your everyday crap, internet use, etc and the other partition as your audio package with network and non essential services disabled.

Quattroste

I use a Mac!

Don't need to worry about malware or any of that ****e.

cornbb

True! But beware: our server at work (a Mac) got hacked recently - someone logged on to find about 40 dodgy Russian sounding user accounts had been created :eek:

Our defences were down due to human error but it pays to be careful

Quattroste

I have a Norton Internet Security on it which has a firewall. If they want to get at my stuff then they must be pretty desperate

frobisher

I don't let the internet anywhere near my system, when I'm updatting anything I transfer from another PC and scan it with antivirus first. I've learnt this the hard way.

Cake Fiend

squibs wrote:

And VMware is not suitable for use for realtime applications like modern sequencing software - there is a performance hit.

I would assume he's talking about using VMWare for the internet access, not for the music production.

Quattroste wrote:

I use a Mac!

Don't need to worry about malware or any of that ****e.

And here we have a fine example of a complete lack of understanding of computer security.

Doctor J wrote:

Another option is to set up two partitions on the hard disk and dual boot.

If this second partition is writable by the first partition, this is next to worthless. Anything that infects the first partition can then infect anything on the second partition.