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Hi,

Setup is a slow old PC with office-stuff etc and a second faster DAW-PC which I'd like to keep as clean and simple as possible. The smaller PC is for web-surfing & e-mail has a firewall and antivirus-software.

For file exchange I want to connect both PCs in a network (peer-to-peer, crosslink UTP cable).

Now I'm wondering, does the DAW need a firewall and/or antivirus-software as well to be protected against all kinds of nasty ?

The DAW-PC is not meant to surf/mail by means of the network and the internet-connection of the smaller machine, so would I be allright by the protection of just the small PC ?

Thanks,

Peter

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Thomas W. Bethel Tue, 01/13/2004 - 04:19

You can get viruses off the net but you can also infect all of your computers tied to the net computer by transfering files. Best to have good anti-virus software on all your computers and keep it up to date (once a week at the very least)There are software firewalls that you may want to look into. Best idea is to have the DAW computer for audio ONLY.

mjones4th Tue, 01/13/2004 - 07:19

Maybe a NAT firewall between your PCs and the greater internet? That's what I have and I haven't had any problems. Although I don't have a PC DAW (Mac-based), my fiancee's PC is sitting behind the same firewall with some virus SW) and she has had no problems.

Beware though, of extra disk traffic and CPU overhead of virus programs.

mitz

anonymous Tue, 01/13/2004 - 18:19

Hi,

Thanks for the responses.

Yep, it's the question whether or not keep that audio-PC minimal/clean w.r.t. applictions and background tasks and be safe at the same time.

I just got the network between my two PCs up & running - sort of. I did it probably the 'hard' way, but I used the Netbios-protocol (NetBEUI)
and disabled all others since it's OK not to be able to surf from the DAW. As it seems this prevents any 'web-acces'/hacking/etc to the second machine.

So it's actually not clear to me why this isn't a more used option, but perhaps a situation for which it's OK not to be able to surf from the second machine is rare these days. Note I'm new to all this so might be missing some vital stuff.

W.r.t. running a virus-scanner on the second PC - when the first (web-connected) PC passes them they'll likely be 'eaten' as well by the second (using the same virus-definitions) I guess.

I'll try to find some more impressions about the approach I followed. I've heard several recommendations from people but can't find much more about this approach in magazines etc.

Bye,

Peter