I experienced the white noise issue even on a PC not connected to the internet.

 

@Andrew
Did you ever start the DAW rp. the plugin with active internet connection? If so, I think, once the plugin is marked as "pirated" you can't roll this back, because it's hidden in the registry or elswhere as a tiny file.

 

No, my audio PC is always offline, but I restarted DAW and it starts to work fine.
No issues since then.

 

That keep calling home,
They keep calling home,
Keep on calling home,
They keep calling home.

Where figures from the past stand tall,
And mocking voices ring the halls.
Imperialistic house of prayer,
Conquistadors who took their share.

 

What about the ol' trick of renamig your default browser?

 

One easy program to block everything is Little Snitch but too much invasive, i tried TCPBlock but crash a lot of times, i found Radio Silence a good alternative ;)

 

If you don't have an extra PC for internet and to avoid starting a program you don't want with internet connection, you can use a little batch file starting your program, just 3 lines:

netsh interface set interface "NetworkAdapter" DISABLED
"c:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 9 Suite\Program\Ableton Live 9 Suite.exe"
netsh interface set interface "NetworkAdapter" ENABLED

Replace "NetworkAdapter" with whatever your NIC is called and save it as e.g. "live9.bat". Make a link to the .bat file to your desktop (or whatever) and let it start with admin rights. So it disables the NIC, starts the program. When you're done with it, enables the NIC an closes itself.
This way you will not start progarms with internet connection by accident.

 

VMs are great! mainly using VMware Workstation 12, (VirtualBox similar), but have better USB2 support, important (IMO) for my MIDI controller (not recognized from VirtualBox machines), running Win 7 (x86, x64) or Win 8.1 x64 as guest OSes, depending what I'm doing (plug tests, install monitoring, development validation etc).

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2016

Some VST plugins require MAC address (network adapter aka NIC), when disabled (or cable is physically disconnected), these plugins don't work (disabled/uplugged NIC = no more MAC address). Try Waves, for example (from V9r30). Many plugs use this scheme. Some other (but more rare) require also IP address but it more easy to lure (IP spoofing technique). Some NIC models also permit to customize MAC address (useful to use unique license on two machines, but can't be connected on same local network).

Firewalling (and IP filtering eg. on routers or L3 switches/VLANs) are totally different (OSI model & their 7-layers theories) than disabling NIC (physically). Another alternative is proxy (require additional machine to have full control for proxy features & rules).

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2016

@MozartEstLa
You're right again.
But if you install virtuals NICs e.g. with VirtualBox (or other utilities) prior to installation, disable the main NIC, and installing software, it grabs the virtual NIC with its MAC adress to bind to... So the program doesn't care about the disconnected main NIC, because it gets its MAC address from the virtual NIC.
This way MAC binding is easy to circumvent.

(I did this with legit software when I switched to another mashine copying the MAC address to a virtual NIC. Simply changing NIC MAC address didn't work for me in that case)

 

Winner and nothing else! in fact, depending how the developer (and SDK he've used) to intercept infos from network stack... Sometimes changing MAC address (it's software) isn't enough if developer goes more deeply (near OSI layer 1 or bottom of layer 2).

 

so.... r2r did not crack it correctly,
working 'offline'... what a nonsense

I don't see why anyone would prefer working offline,
this version just failed miserably, In fact this version probably is nuked internally already
and replaced with a proper, we'll just have to wait it out till the next cycle of releases out of their dnd folder.

stick with an older version, or buy it instead in the mean time

 

I had this issue with the FFilter plugs the first time I used them. and it was with a previous version, it has been part of their protection scheme for a while.
On windows you need either a tool to configure the windows firewall, or a good firewall (look and stop for me) to choose in depth what can connect or not to the internet.
But it sucks, that's why I don't use FFilter stuffs and I prefer DMG, it's a shitty security system, takes ressources (on already pretty hungry vst), and to me softwares that take you on the internet against your will...

 

FabFilter plugins are cpu efficient.

 

lots of stuff call home, how about a firewall?!

 

I've never seen "homecalls" about FabFilter (Windows), either Feb 2016 and previous release. But all DAWs are blocked (stock Win7 firewall + BinSoft's Windows Firewall Control). Maybe I'm lucky (until...)

 

Not on my system , which is not a huge one I agree (IE5, 16 gig ram, Windows 7), but it's not the end of the world. Uhe has very cpu hungry vst's and I use them. If the ressources are used only for thre audio processing, I have no issue with it.

 

You must love living dangerously if you enjoy using pirated software on an internet connected machine without employing any sort of firewall.

Windows 10 firewall control or little snitch is your friend. 'sudo ifconfig en0 down' will permanently disable your ethernet on mac until you 'sudo ifconfig en0 up'

 

well coders must know it how very well, just look at this feature of TeamViewer ...

''If you use TeamViewer you don't have to worry about firewalls: TeamViewer will find a route to your partner'' ...

...even with a firewall if they know how to bypass it ...