[baronspam]

ESPECIALLY Non Hackers should get Datajacks.
Remove Wireless from EVERYTHING, INCLUDING the DataJack.
Route EVERYTHING through the DataJack.
Use a WiFi Comlink with a HARD WiFi Off Switch.
Download data onto comlink, disconnect wifi with the hardware switch so that there is NO MORE WiFi activity going on/in/out about . .
Connect Comlink to Datajack and transfer Data. Pull the plug when done, reactivate Comlink WiFi again.
Run as high as possible FireWall and AntiVirus and any other kind of defence there is on the external comlink.
Have a backup comlink internally, which has no wifi either and route this through the datajack too.
Cluster your ware and the internal comlink together and run an agent with another load of firewall and antivirus . .

Congratulations, you have impressed every hacker on your side and made every other hacker angry.

Honestly, most of this is not necessary, except maybe for your Smartlink and possibly a hacker watching through your eyes. Since pretty much all 'ware is DNI controlled, a hacker can NOT hack your PAN and gain control of your 'ware and hence control of your body. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just doing so in hopes that you won't know any better.

All cyberware comes with a free Direct Neural Interface.  Other than occasionally connection to your pan for updates during downtime, turn the wireless on cyberware off, you don't need it subscribed to your pan.

The one perpetual sticky point is smartlink systems, in which the gun needs to talk to the eyes/display system.  The easiest way to do this is to skinlink everything involved, that way you can run in hidden mode or even kill the wireless entirely if you don't need to be talking to anyone else.  Yes, you can still get hacked if someone touches you, but a hacker in touch range of a combat specialist should get violated six ways til sunday and left in a bloody heap on the floor.  Even then, you have to get through security on the PAN, which is why everyone, always, always, always should run firewall 6 and a high end analyse program.  That will stop all but the elite, and if you are up against elite hackers thats what your own matrix support expert is for.  With good gear and a few basic precautions Joe Matrix ganger can not blind you or make your limbs go crazy.

[Onion Man]

4-8 is average, yes.
So Every 5 Sessions or so you should be able to declare yourself to be raising an attribute.

Slightly OT in here, but out of curiosity, how often and how fast do you usually gain karma in a PbP game?

My local group only plays about twice a month and I'm about to move from Milwaukee to the exurban wasteland, I expect to be bored out of my skull pretty often and would jump on pretty much any opportunity to play any game I'm even passingly familiar with, online or in person.  Plan on putting together at least one character for in the black book here after I get back from Origins, but I've been RPing for ~20 years, there's a good chance I've played whatever game someone proposes at least once or twice over the decades.

[JoeNapalm]

4-8 is average, yes.
So Every 5 Sessions or so you should be able to declare yourself to be raising an attribute.

Slightly OT in here, but out of curiosity, how often and how fast do you usually gain karma in a PbP game?

My local group only plays about twice a month and I'm about to move from Milwaukee to the exurban wasteland, I expect to be bored out of my skull pretty often and would jump on pretty much any opportunity to play any game I'm even passingly familiar with, online or in person.  Plan on putting together at least one character for in the black book here after I get back from Origins, but I've been RPing for ~20 years, there's a good chance I've played whatever game someone proposes at least once or twice over the decades.

It's the 21st Century, man! 

My current group consists of a GM who is 1500 miles away from me, and another player who is 1200 miles away.

Augment your reality - you obviously have a computer. If it's a laptop, it probably has a camera, if it's a desktop...well, cameras are cheap.

-T-

[Onion Man]

I'm not losing my group over the move, I'm just going to be bored as all get out living in the country instead of the city.

Everything good comes from the city.  Things to do, people to see, all that fun stuff.  None of that in the country.

[JoeNapalm]

Just had a thought - if I'm using my cheapo commlink for communications, and it's not linked to my PAN, how do I perceive any external AR? While my character thinks spam should be punishable by public beatings (for which he would gladly offer his services), my understanding is that it's pretty hard to move around in society in 2072 without being tapped into the AR of a particular area. I guess I could wear goggles over my cybereyes that were Image Linked to his throw phone?

To answer my own question, after further reading - I can Subscribe my Active/Passive "cheapo" commlink to my Hidden/Off PAN commlink, thereby being able to perceive AROs without exposing my PAN directly to the outside world.

I'm even considering taking this a step further, and making BOTH comlinks as secure as possible. If having a cheap, insecure 'link is good - having a decent, hardened decoy is better, neh?

-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist