VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

chuckweis · Contributor IV Joined: 27 Feb 2008 Posts: 136

Hmmm. This gives me something to think about, since I was already thinking about custom building a new rig somewhere in the not too distant future and dropping a nice pci interface in it. I'm thinking that one might be "internet-free," and I can use my current PC, which I got dirt cheap off of a local auction, as my PC to upload files and so forth. I think the transferring of files via a thumb drive is perfect!

Yoda117 · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:18 am Post subject:

I'd say that, or use a dumb file server to transfer files between systems.

If you're transferring large amounts of data (we're talking Gb), then it makes sense. If not, then a USB drive is just fine Wink

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mcm · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:40 am Post subject:

I took my DAW off the ether two years ago and it has been a trouble-free two years. Then I decided I wanted Source Connect and reluctantly hooked it back up again last month. Now that it's set up, though, I have nothing further to download and am hoping for the best. That machine is not used for email or web browsing or anything at all on the internet except for SC. File uploads to clients are done on my other computer.

It's amazing how much faster the DAW boots up than the other machine does.

Lance Blair · M&M Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 2281 Location: Atlanta

On my laptop rig, the only thing I need to tweak to help performance is to disable the wireless internet. Otherwise, I can have my firewall etc. up since they don't draw too much.

Here's my revelation for the week: I got a Card Bus FireWire adapter for $36 and I'm now sending my FireWire interface into the computer through the Card Bus slot...I expected a slight improvement, what I got was a massive improvement.
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bobbinbeamo · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:06 pm Post subject:

This is a most interesting thread. I've been hooked up to the web while doing intensive audio processing without problems but this makes me think. Sure, I am fully protected with anti-virus plus firewall. I am also thinking about speed. I just added 500 GB additional storage space on an external drive with auto back up, and it's starting to drive me nuts. Speed is the issue while it "does it's thing". Thanks for this topic.
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Yoda117 · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:39 pm Post subject:

Fiber channel drives to a netbackup or modified SAN (you can find them cheap on eBay... look for the EMC stuff).

Norton Ghost is quick and painless. Veritas Netbackup is my preferred application though.
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louzucaro · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:43 pm Post subject:

Bobbin can't you set it to run the backup at night, like at 3am or something? Most backup software will offer incremental backups...the first one backs up everything, then subsequent ones only back up what's changed since the last backup, making the process go pretty fast.

Then you don't have to deal with the system working on that while you're trying to work on work Smile

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Yoda117 · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:24 pm Post subject:

Hey Lou,

have you done backups on a RAID configured system as of yet?

Been loving that compared to what I used to do.

/also a good way to deal with possible HDD failures, especially with RAID 1 or 0+1
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Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:18 am Post subject:

While I haven't used it, Synctoy comes highly recommended by a friend of mine. Free Powertoy from Microsoft keeps files in two different locations in sync. Again, I haven't used it, but it might work well for backup.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx
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louzucaro · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:31 am Post subject:

Haven't done backup for personal stuff to a RAID system, but my web company has a NAS box for backup of the rest of the network. Works great!
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TheVoiceOfBob · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:40 am Post subject:

Bobbin,
I "disable" my external drive when I'm working on the computer. Usually you can right click on the icon in the system tray and "safely remove", which on a USB or Firewire device can power it down. So I do this, work on stuff, and when I'm done just fire the external HD back up and let it back up my files.
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Yoda117 · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:36 am Post subject:

georgethetech · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:17 am Post subject:

I find that the vast majority of nasties infecting Windows PC's are invited in by the user. If you check your email on your mission critical DAW machine, do so ONLY via Webmail interface, which your webserver provides, or Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc, NOT with Outlook Express! This way anything that could possibly sneak in is safely on a server. You'd have to elect to download the file to your PC, and run it, to cause any harm. NEVER download a file from an unknown user, and NEVER download a file with a .EXE extension from ANYONE. Don't browse the web for questionable content, or use Internet Explorer (Firefox is a better choice). AVG or Avast work great, are free, and take very little system resources. Avoid Norton or McAfee like they are viruses themselves.

As for backups, check out mozy.com, or for local backup, setup a NAS using an Airport Extreme (with latest 7.3.1 firmware) with an array of USB drives and RAID drives (works great for me), or a stand-alone NAS box like the Synology DS207.
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Claire Dodin · Club 300 Joined: 15 Feb 2008 Posts: 392 Location: Sunny LA

Since I've had major problems with my PC and had to re-install windows, my PC is not connected to the internet anymore.
The only software I have on it are audio and video editing and Microsoft office.
I transfer the files to the other computer with a flash drive which is a pain, but now the system works.

Before I had a powerful antivirus , the router's firewall and I know all the safety guidelines. It didn't stop me from catching something. I suspect the problem came from an automatic update from one of my software, possibly windows itself, because when I re-installed everything with an internet connection and got all the updates, it still wouldn't work.

Now everything is fine. I will just never update software, that's all.

I just wish I could have the computer on the network, without the internet. The flashdrive transfer is a pain.
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louzucaro · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:26 am Post subject:

Claire, it's very unlikely Windows Update infected you with a virus or anything else nasty (except, you know, a few bugs here and there Wink

)

George makes a lot of good points in the post right above yours.

I disagree that IE shouldn't be used (again...nine years without a virus using IE every day and no A/V software), but the point of using webmail if you're not comfortable with what to open / not open is a good idea, and most ISPs, even small ones like my company, have webmail access that works pretty well if you have e-mail at your own domain.

And as has been mentioned elsewhere, gmail offers POP retrieval, which means you can have gmail check your other mail addresses, too.

Lots of good options.
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Lou Zucaro
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"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"