Actually the easiest way to be 100% safe is to disable Internet in Windows and dual-boot with some distro of Linux [Debian, Ubuntu] for the Internet and everyday tasks. It is also completely free. If you install Windows first, it's a piece of vegan cake to install Linux on top of it and get dual boot options with Grub or Lilo.

Otherwise, disabling/enabling networking in Windows is pretty easy, too. So when you want to use your DAW you just disable it or like Guitarmaniac64 said - just disconnect the network cable while you're making music. However, disabling network is better since you turn off the network card and also resolve any possible DPC latency problems related to it. Especially if you have a wireless network card. That's the best way to do it and before I just simply started using Linux for everything except making music I'd disable the network card when I was using the DAW. Speaking of services in Windows, they actually work fine and you shouldn't worry about them so much, however it is always a good idea to disable the ones that you don't use at all. Drivers, background tasks/programs in the tray, antivirus - these present real performance problems usually.

Internet is such a wild west these days that I don't trust anything with Microsoft tag on it to even connect to it, let alone browse it. And even in Linux I use a firewall and I have a firewall set up in the router, too. Most of you have a firewall running in your Internet router and you don't even know about it. *yes* If computing resources are critical there's no better way to secure your network by utilising the firewall in your router. I have two, actually... but my "home network" is a bit complex and I don't want to bother you with too much technicalities. Musicians love to keep things simple. Essentially all firewalls work on same principles: block all ingoing and outgoing traffic but use fw rules to circumvent them. Usually outgoing traffic is not blocked by default. Easy-peasy. Once you understand how to do that, you'll be able to adjust any firewall to your needs.

Ahhh, blessed 90s... Internet was so much better in those days. Ads were rare, too. Malware was almost non-existent... except if you count in Norton programs [not Ghost, though].

 

Yes i forgot that many people nowadays have wireless internet including myself but i still use cable for my desktop machines even if i got a usb stick to make it wireless when i bought the router..
Yes i want the 90:s back but even then it was wild west a friend of mine sent me a game in a mail i tried it and then all of a sudden my cd opens screen went white/black/red and many other scary things then the phone rang and it was him laughing and ask if anything was happened to my PC

 

If you would want to stop using comodo and zone alarm these 2 programs extend the functionality of windows firewall to create extensions and simplify the process of blocking programs and may be a better solution to those other 3rd party resource hogs.

http://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php or this tool http://www.howtogeek.com/113641/how-to-extend-the-windows-firewall-and-easily-block-outgoing-connections/

 

I think of the 2 this one is the best to uae the other is a beta as I found out

http://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php

 

I've always just blocked the outgoing but it might not hurt to do incoming as well guys and that is a simple process to do manually. These notification programs that run on top of windows firewall are great to use I just installed one and set it up. simple to do. Tried installing comodo and looked at zone alarm and they want to put all kinds of additional software on your system. I used revo to uninstall comodo and it took forever and boy did they put a lot of crap on my system.

 

Nobody really read my initial post.

Windows Firewall blocks everything you say. No need for external tools. Thanks for NOT READING NOR UNDERSTANDING.

 

text from their website



Windows Firewall Control - Managing Windows Firewall is now easier than ever
Program Overview
Windows Firewall Control is a powerful application which extends the functionality of the Windows Firewall and provides quick access to the most frequent options of Windows Firewall. It runs in the system tray and allows user to control the native firewall easily without having to waste time by navigating to the specific part of the firewall. This is the best tool to manage the native firewall from Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista and Server 2008. Windows Firewall Control offers four filtering modes which can be switched with just a mouse click:

High Filtering - All outbound and inbound connections are blocked. This setting blocks all attempts to connect to and from your computer.
Medium Filtering - Outbound connections that do not match a rule are blocked. Only the programs that you allow can initiate outbound connections.
Low Filtering - Outbound connections that do not match a rule are allowed. The user can block the programs he doesn't want to allow initiating outbound connections.
No Filtering - Windows Firewall is turned off. Avoid using this setting unless you have another firewall running on your computer.

Program Features
√ Intuitive and easy accessible interface in the system tray, next to the system clock.
√ Full support with standard user accounts. Elevated privileges are required only at installation.
√ Disable the ability of other programs to add Windows Firewall rules.
√ Multiple and easier ways of creating new rules in Windows Firewall.
√ Integrated support of creating, modifying and deleting Window Firewall rules.
√ Lock feature which can disable the access to the settings of the program and Windows Firewall.
√ Shell integration into the right click context menu of the executable files.
√ Search for invalid rules with the possibility to delete them.
√ Merge multiple similar rules or duplicate existing ones.
√ Search for executable files through folders and create new rules in seconds.
√ View recently allowed and blocked connections and create new rules from the Security log.
√ Choose if you want the program to start at user log on.
√ Import, export and restore all firewall rules or just the selected rules.
√ Protection to unauthorized uninstallation.
√ Possibility to restore previous settings at uninstallation.
√ Global hot keys are supported and various shortcuts are available.
√ And many, many more. Just try it out.

Registered Users Features
√ Notifications System which provides notifications for outbound blocked connections. Four modes available:
High - Display notifications for all outgoing connections that were blocked, including System and svchost.exe.
Medium - Display notifications only for regular programs, without notifications for System and svchost.exe.
Low - Automatically allow digitally signed programs. Notifications are displayed only for unsigned programs.
Disabled - Notifications are disabled.
√ Create temporary rules which are automatically deleted when they expire or on program restart.

System Requirements
√ Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.0
√ Compatible with all x86 and x64 versions of Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista and Server 2008.
√ Windows Firewall service is required to be enabled for Windows Firewall Control to run.
√ DNS Client service is required to be enabled for the notifications to work properly.

Known Limitations
√ Windows Firewall is incompatible with some software proxies.
√ Notifications System is incompatible with old versions of BoxCryptor and TrueCrypt.
√ Due to multiple system configurations and software installed there may be incompatibility problems. Please report them all and help us to improve Windows Firewall Control. Thank you for your support !

 

Actually I did and in fact I think that doing that is cool if all you have is one or 2 programs or exe files to block but when you can just block everything and be notified that makes more sense to me because it sets you up to stop that program from updating and learn it is not supposed to even be on your computer. Hence it does the job for a lot less effort and the program above does it by using windows firewall and lets you create the rule when a program is getting blocked with just one click instead of whatever it takes to do the job using your guy i that videos method and when you do block it then you know to complete the process and block its inbound traffic as well. Windows firewall is doing the blocking not the software that I mentioned it just operates as an extension of windows firewall it is not any third party bloatware. You need to read this more to see that.

 

by the way I did use that method to block in and outbound communication fro a program there were 7 exe files I created rules for in that one program if I only need to do that when a program is trying to communicate I would prefer to create that rule when it happens not 14 times going through the process and then find out I only needed to block the right exe file and none of the others would try to communicate home. using my method of blocking them all and choosing what gets in or out at the point of attack makes a lot more sense since I can just click one botton to block the communication as it happens.

 

My answer was not directly addressed to you. Your recommendation is using the firewall, it's an extra gui, nothing more. That's ok.
I was talking about the all other ppl who replied with "use Zone Alarm", "Comodo" and however they're named.

Windows Firewall is the simplest solution to block *any* DAW from the internet, preventing plugins calling home.