[jeffB]

1) is there a way without dl'ing a firewall to completely shut out vpc from the internet and my work's network. People in my office think using an unpatched win98 machine is A-O.K. to have on the internet. I want it to be "completely blind" to any connection i have. I remember a while ago (before i owned a powerbook) that vpc worked so well that virii were working like they were on a pc.

2) is it a pain to print something from vpc?

thanks

[thePurpleGiant]

1) While I'm not too familiar with the exact details, you can simply disable your ethernet card from within the Windows control panel. No network card = no network.

2) Not a pain to print at all. You have two options - The first is the install your printer drivers in windows, and print as usual. Works fine. The second is to have Virtual PC emulate a printer, and send all print jobs to the mac driver to be printed. Both work, although I find the first option works much better.

[jeffB]

thanks allot, i never thought of disabling the network card. you sir are a gentleman and a scholar and et al.

[Unseelie]

Originally posted by jeffB:
thanks allot, i never thought of disabling the network card. you sir are a gentleman and a scholar and et al.

There's a better way that disabling the network card in Windows. Look in the settings panel for the virtual machine in question where you can select 'Shared Networking' or 'Virtual Switch'... there's a checkbox there for 'Enable Networking'... just unselect that.

It will require you to restart your VM though.

Now, with that having been said, if you're running with 'Shared Networking' you are effectively behind a virtual router running NAT. Your Mac and your PC VM appear as one machine. That should protect you from most issues. I'd still run anti-virus software and a firewall (I like Zone Alarm) on the PC though.