I’m on a 5 1/2 year old iMac that is online via wireless connection. I’ve never had an issue. I do mirror my setup on a mac air and try new software on the mac air first usually.
I have to keep mine online because of the massive amount of audio/video downloading I need to manage. And a lot of my software is constantly needing to update itself if I really want to stay current with new technology. And remote sessions…ISDN feeds…live broadcast mixing from an offsite location…you have to have your DAW online for that stuff.
If you have a mac pro, those things don’t even HAVE wi-fi cards.
Do you suffer from anti virus software interfering with your DAWs?
I keep my studio PC offline - but only while I’m working (easy, just remove the wireless dongle) .
I have it set up that simple plugging that in reconnects me if I need software downloads and the like.
No. But my mac’s have acquired several nasty viruses over the years, each time causing an incredible amount of inconvenience.
I’ve actually struggled with the security features inside the macs - the firewall kept flagging certain plugins as viruses. It even tried to quarantine a couple of Boz’s beta versions lol.
I have a client that insists on keeping their PT HD 10 video rig offline. Regardless of how many times the registration pop up appears and they click ‘never register’, the thing continues to badger them.
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I keep mine offline most of the time, except for updating Sonar or activating plugins. The problem is if I go online Windows 10 updates whether I want it to or not. I thought Windows 10 pro wasn’t supposed to do that and I have everything set to not update but it does it anyways. I’ve grown to hate Windows. Definitely getting a Mac next time around.
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For the moment being it’s offline. Usually i have worked without being bothered while online. Windows 7
That only works for Windows 10 Enterprise. The catch here is that you have to buy 1,000+ licenses to be eligible for Enterprise.
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Ive used this instruction of stopping the Driver updates and havent had many issue since with W10.
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Best way to avoid Win10 crap automatic updates and abusive telemetry is to stay on Win7! 
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I have the same situation as Emma. My computer is still offline, but it’s a hassle. Some of the software I have bought still doesn’t work because of it. So I’m now trying to get an internet connection with a USB mobile wifi card. For some reason it’s not working yet… I’m not much good with these things. The question which I haven’t solved yet is this: I will only use my internet connection for things like software updates at known sites. I wonder if I would need an anti-virus scanner? I don’t like the idea of software that is constantly scanning my computer, even when I’m off line. Is there a way of having anti-virus running only when you’re on-line?
Amen to THAT brother.
Most virus scanners have a “turn off scanning” switch available via the Windows task bar and many also have settings to only scan when the computer is idle.
I know a lot of folks that have a dedicated machine for audio, I simply don’t have the luxury yet. So, my audio computer is also my everything computer. That being said, once I have the chance to have separate machines I would certainly let it connect to the internet, but I would also constrict what actually is actually accessed on the machine. The internet isn’t inherently bad for a machine, it’s what users permit the machine to access.
My main recording computer is online at all times and I have my email client open as well along with having Norton running which is supposed to be the worst/most intrusive virus protection there is.
It’s an older AMD 6 core. But it turns out to be one of the best processors for my particular applications.
I actually have this machine set up to triple boot. I have 3 SSD with win7 as my everything computer, another clean install of win7 that is stripped down to nothing but daw related stuff. And the last drive has another clean install of 7 that I let upgrade to win10. All audio files are routed/stored to a separate physical drive and all documents/pictures and videos have their own drive as well. The drives get backed up regularly to an external.
I regularly read/write emails, check my auctions on ebay and sometimes post to forums 
while listening down on a mix. I find it keeps me from looking at waveforms to make sense of things. Then when I’m not glued to the screen, I hear things that jump out at me that need attention.
The funny thing is that I built this into a triple boot in order to use these dedicated partitions/drives as “safe” offline dedicated DAWs. It just never happened. I’m still on the main drive. Well now that I’ve told folks that I’ve never had a problem I will surely crash shortly. But at least I have 3 chances to boot and get to my projects…
have fun
rich
I don’t have the space to have dedicated machines. Not to mention the online activation and updates for the software.
It would probably be nice not having to kill all other programs from memory before I start working just to be on the safe side.
No space in the house to have another PC. (Or at least none that my wife is willing to give me the option for.)
Windows 10 users, use free software O&O ShutUp10, working great for me in getting rid of crap from the system, including forced updates.
I don’t think it’s possible now not to be online with so many updates, upgrades, registrations, software downloads etc.
In my studio it’s also a frequent client requirement to go online and get a sound effect or backing track or reference track.
I am always slightly nervous about my dedicated studio computer being online but its probably unfounded. I think more of a problem is the general crap that you tend to amass over time just from being online and ‘doing stuff’. The hard drive and OS get more and more bloated, the boot up time takes longer, and bugs and errors become more frequent.