Oct 27, 2017, 21:46 pm
Hi
A friend of mine was asking if it is possible to block Autodesk software from phoning home with 100% confidence. Currently he has a PC which runs backup versions of Maya. He has another, registered (subscription) version of Maya running on a work laptop which he sometimes brings home. The PC is there for the times he doesn't have the laptop and as a kind of insurance that he'll always have access to his files. He's concerned that if the PC is connected to the internet, it will squeal and if the work laptop happens to be on the same network, it too might somehow detect a less than legit version of Maya.
Currently, his solution to this problem is to leave the default gateway blank in the network settings of the PC. This allows him to see his local network (and NAS) but prevents connection to the outside world and any remote servers. Ideally though, what he's after is being able to connect to the internet on the PC but have absolute confidence there's nothing connecting somewhere he'd rather it wasn't. He also wants to know whether services like Bonjour are something to worry about.
He knows about Firewalls, but doesn't trust the default Windows 10 firewall. He's found others like Comodo and ZoneAlarm either too baffling due to the granular nature of trying to interpret network traffic, or way too Lax in allowing "Trusted" applications from an arbitrary list to connect at will. Also, it seems programs like Maya install other applications and services in other places on the system which are hard to track and identify as potential leaks.
Does anybody have any tips or knowledge they could pass on?
A friend of mine was asking if it is possible to block Autodesk software from phoning home with 100% confidence. Currently he has a PC which runs backup versions of Maya. He has another, registered (subscription) version of Maya running on a work laptop which he sometimes brings home. The PC is there for the times he doesn't have the laptop and as a kind of insurance that he'll always have access to his files. He's concerned that if the PC is connected to the internet, it will squeal and if the work laptop happens to be on the same network, it too might somehow detect a less than legit version of Maya.
Currently, his solution to this problem is to leave the default gateway blank in the network settings of the PC. This allows him to see his local network (and NAS) but prevents connection to the outside world and any remote servers. Ideally though, what he's after is being able to connect to the internet on the PC but have absolute confidence there's nothing connecting somewhere he'd rather it wasn't. He also wants to know whether services like Bonjour are something to worry about.
He knows about Firewalls, but doesn't trust the default Windows 10 firewall. He's found others like Comodo and ZoneAlarm either too baffling due to the granular nature of trying to interpret network traffic, or way too Lax in allowing "Trusted" applications from an arbitrary list to connect at will. Also, it seems programs like Maya install other applications and services in other places on the system which are hard to track and identify as potential leaks.
Does anybody have any tips or knowledge they could pass on?
