Most use a separate PC. Just about anything that will get you on the net will suffice. You can use an external cardwriter or so to transport it to your DAW (even the smallest SD card beats a floppy). Be sure to have the needed specs at hand when selecting your drivers.

Mind you, I am not a professional muso. It's all homestudio here.

I was thinking myself of a dual boot on the DAW machine until I can afford my own notebook and use that to surf. That second system might be a Linux distro that can also serve to noodle around in Linux audio like Ardour or so. You'd expect to be able to download a file or two, whatever the format is.

On the Internet you should always be running some active anti-virus software. For ad ware and spy ware, download Lava soft's Adaware PE, it's wonderful! I run 4 machines with 1 dedicated to the Internet. I use that machine to obtain all of my of my updates, burning them to CDs and running those on the other 3 workstations. That's the best thing to do.

Gearhead
Ms. Remy Ann David

I use my PC for everything, its geared more as a DAW, but I still connect to the internet with it. I just have good anti-virus/adware software and a good firewall installed and running.

There are a number of ways to get stuff from computer A to computer B. The thing is most of them can be costly buying the mandatory hardware/software.

1. You can set-up an ethernet connection with a router (wireless if the 2 computers are far apart). And yes routers are somewhat firewalls by hiding the other computers on the network.
2. You can use various protocols such as.... USB, Firewire or LPT1 ports.
3. Download all necessary things and burn them to a CD-R. (this is the cheapest).

Good Luck!

My PC never gets near the net, I download everything on my mac, and transfer over my ethernet.

My ISP is excellent for blocking spam and virus.

8)

In my opinion, the cheapest solution (it gets more and more economical the more stuff you have to transfer) is one of those "thumb drives" or keychain drives that you plug into your USB port. You can reuse it for years without ever paying more than the initial cost of the drive, and it's just as portable as a CD (slightly moreso, actually).

Quickly ends up cheaper than buying blank CDs over and over, and you also don't end up with all of those cds being stored or junked. Then again, if you WANT to store hard copies of the drivers and things that you transfer, CD may be the way to go. Otherwise you'll end up deleting them from the thumb drive eventually. Still, thumb drives can get pretty big nowadays, so you may be able to use one for a long time without even worrying about it filling up.

What I'm thinking about doing is getting an iMac for internet use and starting over with a clean install on the Dell, and use it for just DAW and Visual Basic. Providing I will be able to download drivers for a PC on the Mac, then transfer them to the Dell by "thumb drive".

r

Well 4 me

I dont let my recording pc touch the internet 2 all, if i need to do transfer i disconnect my router from the modem and do my work from their. But my recording rig has deep freeze installed so i dont have virus problems and all that to worry about.

Get a Mac

Get a Mac. I previously used a PC for net stuff and my powerbook for recording (which it does such a better job at), but I realized that I didn't have to worry about all that spyware and virus hoopa (yes, I just said hoopa...) with the mac. I then trashed the PC (Peice of Crap) with all of my operations going through the powerbook. So... if youve got the cash, Turn the PC into trash, and get the nack for a MAC!

Thedave,

Until this past week, the MAC seemed virus proof. But someone has told me that there is now a virus infecting MACs. Do you know anything about this?

Another thing: if I were going to invest in a MAC dedicated to DAW, why not invest in a custom-built PC dedicated to DAW, for the same price? The reason I ask is because I happen to hate PCs, myself, but am considering GigaStudio/ Larry Seyer, which will not run on a MAC.
r

S,
as for myself I havent heard of this virus, but hey, the wold does change. There will always be problems if you go one way or the other, Mac to PC, its probably one of the biggest debates in digital recording... well, ever. I want as much of an "all in one" rig that IO can get, and going from one computer to the other was just getting tireing for me. Yes, there will probably be a few viruses created the will affect macs in the coming years, however there will probably be considerably less that will, than there already are for PC's. Now, if you have a Pc dedicated only to ypur DAW then there will be less of a worry, but you will need another Cpu to get the net stuff done... back to the original delemia. So its about prefrence, I like only having to worry about one computer (and not troubleshooting it as often as my old PC). Opiniona will widely varry.
Finaly, Apple now is converting to The intel duo processors, and I still havent found many peiple that know what software apps will be compatable (Mine still dosent arrive until Mar 28th :( ). But it looks promising in the future for such software to work.
I probably just confused you even more, sorry, but do what you willl be the most comfortble with, as for me it has been the Mac.
Thedave

A friend of my wife's has a G3 Powerbook for sale. $300. Is that too slow for Internet? I don't remember the specific model, but it's one of the cream-colored ones.

I guess that you could... 300 dollars is not bad, but you might run into walls with the low memory, also, if you would use it, the frontside bus isn't all that hot i think its something like 64 Mhz ( but dont quote me on that). I would look into something faster like a G4.

gdoubleyou wrote: My PC never gets near the net, I download everything on my mac, and transfer over my ethernet.

8)

A new iMac might be a good choice for Internet, then, since it uses current technology and is unlikely to contract a virus. And a separate computer, whether it be MAC, PC, or Custom-built, could be used just for audio processing.

The Dell I have, likely corrupted already, could be wiped clean. But how do you insure no viruses or other grunge will be transferred to a cleaned up computer when reclaiming all your "must have" personal files?

Perhaps the Dell will work splendidly for audio, once everything necessary for Internet use is removed from it - and virus and spyware/adware scans have been done in "safe" mode. You think?

Could one connect to the Internet with a Mac mini, and dedicate a cleaned up PC to audio processing - perhaps using the PC's mouse, keyboard and monitor. This would be an elegant solution for my limited-space environment. Does anyone know whether this would work?

I believe you can do this but you need a switch for the keyboard, mouse and monitor. Not sure if the PC keyboard will work with the mac though.

The thing about viruses is that the great majority of them are downloaded. That is it requires some action from the user to get them onto your computer. Either you visit a site of questionable integrity, open a questionable email or use some sort of P2P software. There are relatively few people that get viruses just from being on line.

The worst thing about viruses is the simple fact that.. well who benefits most from viruses? No it's not the computer geek. What does any geek care if your computer goes down? (Nothing against geeks, of which I am one) It's the antivirus companies who benifit most from viruses. No viruses. No income. Hmmmmm. Funny how most virus writers don't get prosecuted much less found out.

That is odd, isn't it. It would not surprise me to find out the 'Internet security" companies create 99% of the demand for their product.

I'm looking at a KVM switch by Avocent that should do the trick. Gotta work a few more hours of overtime, though, to get it.

I've got an email in to a Mac retailer. Soon as I get a difinitive answer I'll try to let you know.