Security considerations on a home-built virtual host

[troublesome]

Hello,

I'm thinking of virtualizing my desktop PC, because I'm switching to a MacBook Pro soon, as my main computer. Will be running VMWare ESXi (Free version).

The box is running a i7 950 CPU with 6 GB of memory. 6 GB of RAM is probably not enough if I want to run more than 2-3 virtual machines(Windows OS), but that not why I'm here.

I'm not sure yet whether the virtual machines should have access to the internet, because I'm going to use the virtuals as development machines where I will deploy my own software on for testing. I could just hang them in a different network and they'll be safe from the outside, right?

What is the best approach for securing the virtual machines from viruses, malware, etc? I don't want to go and spend money on licenses for Anti-Virus software on my virtual machines.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ss202sl]

You can always set up your VM's to a internal only network(no internet). They could see each other, but nothing else.

If your using Windows, then Microsoft Security Essentials should be enough for aniti-virus

 

[goodguy713]

honestly don't do any web surfing to odd ball websites. or download pirated files. skip the porn sites and you will be fine for in house network short of someone getting your wifi passwords which honestly just changing them on a regular basis will protect you most of the time and make sure you use 13 symbols vs the 7 and change the master password for your router to anything but the default to many router passwords out in the wild work for the default.

 

[troublesome]

Alright, thanks for the input. I'll go for the separate internal network then!