Pro Tools and THE INTERNET

[Friend]

Hi,

My PC is not and has never been hooked up to the Internet. My question is this: If I create a new primary partition on my system drive, install a second operating system, and use that to go online, can my samples hard drive and my recording hard drive be effected by spyware/malware/viruses?

[vocalvoodoo]

Any drive that is connected to the computer will be vulnerable to viruses if you are online, including USB & firewire drives.

To tell you the truth, I personally have never had a virus hose my sessions or audio files and I've always had my DAW online. A lot of people don't recommend putting DAWs online, but using good virus protection like AVG and good spyware/malware software along with being vigilant should keep you safe. Granted there are no guarantees, but steering clear of 'questionable' websites, using sofware as mentioned above and not openeing email attachments I'm not sure of has kept my DAW machine free of viruses. As always, YMMV, FWIW, IMO, IMHO etc., etc.

[EGS]

Any drive that is connected to the computer will be vulnerable to viruses if you are online, including USB & firewire drives. To tell you the truth, I personally have never had a virus hose my sessions or audio files and I've always had my DAW online. A lot of people don't recommend putting DAWs online, but...

I recommend NOT putting your DAW online. Using a cheap second computer for internet stuff is the best way to protect your PT rig. My 2 cents.

[sunburst79]

Never any Virus/Malware problem with any netconnected DAW here.

I do definately recommend dual booting and having a general purpose windows partition for internet usage, downloading updates and the like.

I recommend this from the simple housekeeping stand point only having the absolute minimal amount of stuff installed along side with ProTools in its own dedicated partition. My dedicated Protools partition gets virus scanned along with all of the others when XP is running in the general purpose partition.

You probably have a larger chance of infection with someone bringing in a session in on a Firewire/USB drive, optical disk, thumb drive or even an iPod.

With 7.4 Digi is writing for machines that are connected and up to date with Windows Update.

If your running SP2 and its updated and your running I.E.7 or Firefox with A/V software a 2 way firewall your risk is minimal.

A lot of wireless routers act as or have a built in firewall in them.

My Wireless DAW has been connected since July with no problems.