DAW: internet use - yes or no?

alex matson · Post by **alex matson** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:15 pm

So...I've been a Mac user the last several years. In a week or so I'll be taking
possession of a Dell server for my studio. The seller is an IT tech guy; he's partitioned the hard drive for me so that I can use it either for the net or as a DAW. He said that while he's not had problems, he also knows what he's doing. He says the partioning will protect my music. I'd like to get opinions on the safety of having this machine online. My instincts are to keep my Mac, upgrade from 9.2 to Tiger or Meerkat or Calico or whatever it is, and let that be my net machine. This means a net loss of $500 or so, between not selling the Mac and upgrading the OS; but then, risking my music seems worth it. As the Pixies sang, do you have another opinion?

jmblack · Post by **jmblack** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:31 pm

I think that as long as you establish a good security policy you will probably be okay. Make sure to close any unused open ports, use good passwords on accounts and change the passwords every so often, limit the number of accounts on the machine, make sure there are no services running that you don't need, disable shares you don't use, etc. Being a server, I should think it might be easier to connect to from the internet than a normal computer.

Get a good firewall and/or put the server behind a hardware router.

GooberNumber9 · Post by **GooberNumber9** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:37 pm

I have my DAW on the Internet and it's never concerned me (I'm a professional IT consultant). Here's the big catch, though:
I don't have Anti-virus software on any of my computers at home. I'm confident that based on the way I use the Internet (hardly ever and that's to get software updates from well-known vendor sites), I'm not concerned about getting a virus. I'm also very arrogant about it because in 16 years of computer ownership I've never gotten a virus and never had anti-virus software.

I HAVE had my computer hacked before. That happened because I setup a conduit through my home firewall to make games run better. I would make sure you have a firewall first and foremost, and I'm not talking about the Windows firewall. A Linksys or Netgear Cable/DSL router is fine (that's what I use). You might also have a built-in firewall in your cable/DSL modem. That's also fine.

If you are more comfortable with anti-virus on your computer, then I would set up one computer as the DAW with no Internet and no anti-virus, then the other computer as the Internet computer with anti-virus. I've never tried running a DAW on a computer with anti-virus, but I'm not keen to try it.

Or, back out of this PC deal and get a new iMac. No virus worries and you can dual-boot into Windows XP if you want to.

Todd Wilcox

kweis7 · Post by **kweis7** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:44 pm

With a PC (and probably a MAC too) having an active internet connection will take up a bit of system resources as will having active anti-virus running. I disable the anti-virus and disconnect from my network when I am doing DAW stuff to have as much free resources as possible.

I don't do much web surfing with the DAW box though, mostly updates. Do your web surfing on another machine.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:02 pm

My G5 is online via airport and I frequently check TapeOp during session breaks without ever closing out of Digital Performer. I've never had an issue with innerweb security, though I'm sure that going forward thhis may change. Just be extremely careful, especially on the PC side. Maybe use Firefox instead of innerweb exploder?

Jeff

alex matson · Post by **alex matson** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:18 pm

I rent a room in a house. The owner's my roommate. There's no firewall.
I just wiki'd up what a firewall is, but it didn't help me understand whether they are readily available by calling, in my case, Comcast, and how much they are.
Wiki says they are either/or hard- or software. Can I get one just for my computer if the house as a whole doesn't want to pay for it?
Oh and while I'd love a Mac Pro, I'm paying less than a third of that for my new setup. I was inspired by James Mercer talking about recording Oh, Inverted World on a cheap PC using Cool Edit Pro. The fact that the songs and performances were able to transcend the gear and engineering skill just got me excited.
It sounds like I should keep the G4 as my internet machine.

parlormusic · Post by **parlormusic** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:21 pm

When I had only one computer to use for internet and recording, I used two hard drives for the OS- each in it's own removeable caddy. When I wanted to switch from surfing to recording, I simply swapped the HDD caddys. This also allowed for two different OS tweaks and installed software.

JASIII · Post by **JASIII** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:37 pm

I don't do it. I also completely disabled everything on my PC to optimize it for recording. I don't even run a screen saver or a desktop background image. For me, the reward isn't worth the risk. I just use a different computer for the net.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:48 pm

If you really want to "protect your music", get a second physical drive for your music data. And a third drive to back up the second (and first if you wish).

You should get (in most cases) a better performance return on your DAW, and it won't be all or nothing in case your drive could/will go bad.

I do pretty serious database work for my day job, and I can tell you Murphy is alive and well....

idylldon · Post by **idylldon** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:11 pm

JASIII wrote:I don't do it. I also completely disabled everything on my PC to optimize it for recording. I don't even run a screen saver or a desktop background image. For me, the reward isn't worth the risk. I just use a different computer for the net.

This is what I do as well. Before I had a dedicated DAW machine in the studio, though, I used to use my regular PC for editing and it was connected to the internet. Never had a problem, but I prefer the speed increase I'm getting with a dedicated DAW with an only-what's-required operating system.

Cheers,
--
Don

stevedood · Post by **stevedood** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:55 pm

My 1 year-old PC system was recently taken down by a spyware-bound virus that loaded itself when I clicked on an image in Google images while browsing on Firefox. Fortunately, my data was saved in an external drive.
..But the thing proved so pesky to remove with Norton/AdAware/regedit that I ended up wiping the entire drive and reloading XP & all my software instead of the possibility and uncertaintly of it ever recurring the future. It set me back a night and a day of nervous eyeball twitching.

If you can afford to have a separate system (especially a Mac!) to browse the net, I would go that route and just keep it separate from your DAW except when you need to connect and update your software/drivers.

klangtone · Post by **klangtone** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 5:28 pm

JASIII wrote:I don't do it. I also completely disabled everything on my PC to optimize it for recording. I don't even run a screen saver or a desktop background image. For me, the reward isn't worth the risk. I just use a different computer for the net.

ditto.

With PC's this is the safest best. Inconvenient as hell at times, but worth it.

Roy

high five · Post by **high five** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 6:52 pm

alex matson wrote:he's partitioned the hard drive for me so that I can use it either for the net or as a DAW ... He says the partioning will protect my music.

Well, partitions aren't actually helping you out much at all here. If you can read/delete the files on the "music" partition, so can any harmful software you might run. To be truly safe, keep your DAW system disconnected from any network at all.

Also, make backups to a physically separate location! Backing up data from one partition to the other is pretty much useless when the entire drive dies, because both partitions are toast. Either use an external drive, buy another internal drive, backup to the other computer (turn networking off when you're done, if you're paranoid), OR backup to external medium like CD-R or tape drive.

If you decide to disable your screen-saver, please remember to use the energy saver feature to put your display to sleep. Even LCD monitors suffer from "burn-in" if you leave them on too long.

Regarding firewalls, the firewall system that comes with Windows and Mac OS X both are fine. They are somewhat simple, but it doesn't take anything special to "block all incoming ports". ZoneAlarm for Windows is a good application-level firewall, but I don't know of a Mac OS counterpart.

If you are really concerned about keeping your DAW system safe, like klangtone and JASIII said, just keep it away from any network. Also, just because Mac OS doesn't have a major problem with malware currently doesn't mean it never will... you still need to be careful and follow common sense.

alex matson · Post by **alex matson** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:32 pm

heh, the word malware reminds me a crappy job I had for a month when I first moved here and was looking for a real job...my job was to call up IT companies and invite them to Intel seminars and such. I remember emphasizing the terms 'malware' and 'blade server technology' because I thought they were arcane, cutting edge terms in my speil. Eyes must have been rolling.
You'll learn how plugins and digital audio workstations can revolutionize your productivity!

pandatone · Post by **pandatone** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:23 pm

i have an opinion. and im going to share it.

it doesn't matter. stuffs happens, who knows what will happen? maybe your HD will just grind to a halt on its own for now reason? i know ive had a couple do that.
maybe a virus will take you down.

anyways..

what will help you get the most sleep & be the happiest working? if not having your daw hooked up the internet makes you feel more comfortable. do it. just do it. don't worry about.. whatever.. if your suspicious, not one will really convince you till you've already convinced yourself anways.

get a laptop for the internet.. a flash drive to move files, and get on with your life.

panda

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DAW: internet use - yes or no?

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