Love your conclussion
Although I agree with you I feel it could well applied to those sufferin' an extreme tech/web addiction by several very concrete causes. Look, in the www I've found @SAiNT, Atkinson, you; & many other valuable humans with whom I've learned a lot, took in the same way, shared, grew, good & big things happens also as to have some chances to sound, play, produce than never before, means a lot to me, & it is for real. Very sadly I'm in a very dark situation 'cause my mother is living her final days after years of a long, cruel suffering, so for now is impossible to bring clear testimony about the good things referred, but I'll do for sure.

 

It's not needed. THREE MEGA-BYTES and an installer, as opposed to just 50 BYTES no installer, to do exactly the same thing - yeah that's a smart solution

 

Haha. You may have OCD. Hey, why don't you script and post the *.bat files for the OP and future researchers so that the issue is solved to your satisfaction? Too much typing about this.

 

Last edited: May 17, 2025

Personally I have disconnected my main audio computer from the internet by disabling the network stack. To do that on Windows you just turn off the “Internet protocol, Version 4 and 6” options in the settings of your network device. Doing that will turn off all internet access for that device. Then I connect to the internet using a virtual machine using bridge mode which provides a separate network stack for the VM. I can access the downloads using a shared folder, so I don't need to worry about anything. If I need internet access for the main machine, I can simply turn on the network stack again, do what I have to do and turn it back off afterward.

 

Mac: Little Snitch
Windows: Glasswire
Linux: Port Master

 

I'd just bounce to audio then the plugins aren't needed. Then, next time you Collab, agree to only use plugins you both have.

 

Maybe you're blind as well - the solution is a single line instruction which has already been explained once, in detail, in this thread. That should be quite sufficient for most anyone (maybe not, but not my problem) to comprehend. Agreed. You have typed too much about this already.

 

Last edited: May 18, 2025

I got as much - but how do you block Waves plugins only (but not, say, Fabfilter) within Ableton if you block the entire Ableton app? That was my question.

 

By editing the hosts file. You need to know all the adresses that the plug-in you want to block can try to connect to.

 

Out of curiosity, what plugins?

 

Same here, it's simple and effective.

 

block the firewall and add the domains of these developers to the hostfile.

 

Precisely.

 

EXCEPT, if any of the domains have multiple IP addr's associated with them you will not be able to block them completely via HOSTS file at all. At that point you must use a firewall and/or NetLimiter, and block all IP addr's associated with the domain. The HOSTS file is not capable of blocking numeric IP addresses (neither IPv4 or IPv6), only alpha-based domain names.

 

Last edited: May 21, 2025

Dude, you crack me up! I always choose disconnect unless there is a dam good reason to connect.

 

I use Ableton from sister site, but I'm looking at buying an upgrade to my Live Lite so I can get updates. Currently using LuLu on Mac to block outbound connections which seems to work well.

Is it possible to use purchased Ableton with plugins from the sister site? I would aim to block with LuLu, then occasionally remove plugins (can just turn off the plugin scan directory in Ableton?), allow Ableton to phone home and install updates -- reinstate the firewall rule then re-enable plugins. I'm assuming this setup works?

 

Yes. You firewall all the plugins separately, and also firewall Ableton. When you have to let Ableton out to the internet for updates, you just allow it out, and doing it from a blank session with no loaded plugins can only help.

Anyway, no problem at all doing what you want. Just some details to handle correctly. You can use Radio Silence with LuLu also. You can find it on Sister Site too. If you were blocking all plugins in Radio Silence and using LuLu on top of it, you would just disable LuLu and do your updating. Simple.

 

- Midi Wizard 2 - no home calling, authorisation for 2 computers simultaneously (iLok protected - you need access for iLok ID with license for Midi Wizard 2).
- Viper - no home calling and simple offline activation, ANY any quantity (made with FlowStone - Windows *.dll only).
- Rapid - home calling is possible, but offline activation is possible too - I think it works without home calling.