Students who wish to connect their terminals/laptops to the Downstate network must meet the following requirements.

Operating Systems

Supported

• Windows 2000/XP
• Mac OS X
• Linux

Unsupported

The following operating systems will not be allowed to connect to the Downstate network

• Windows 95, 98, ME, NT
• Mac OS 9 and earlier

Minimum Hardware Requirements

All computers should have a minimum of 512 Mb of RAM, however, 2 Gb or more of RAM is  recommended.

Connecting to the network

In order to connect a computer to the Downstate Network the following guidelines must be met:

1. Computers must meet the minimum requirements listed above.
   Windows 9x or NT based computers will not be allowed to connect to the network as they are no longer supported by Microsoft.

2. The SUNY Downstate Corporate edition of Norton Antivirus must be installed.
   This will be done on campus prior to activating any computer port or allowing access to our wireless network. Other antivirus packages (e.g., McAfee or the regular edition of Norton Antivirus) are not sufficient and will be replaced with the Corporate Edition of Norton Antivirus.

3. Operating system patches must be up-to-date.
   For windows users, please visit Microsoft's Windows Update Site and make sure your computer is up-to-date with any critical service packs. Having this ready prior to arriving will decrease the time it will take to approve your computer for connection to the campus network.

4. File sharing software must be removed from the computer.
   This includes all BitTorrent and Limewire programs.

For Wireless Connectivity

Downstate maintains a Wi-Fi 802.11g network in the Library and on the 5th-8th floors of the Health Science Education Building.

In order to connect, your laptop must have either built-in wireless capability or a wireless network card of type 802.11g or 802.11b.