Minimum System Requirements

What you need to Connect:

A computer conforming to the minimum requirements below.
A network interface card. (commonly called a NIC or ethernet card)
An ethernet cable. (not a phone cord - they are very different) Network adapters and ethernet cables can be purchased at the campus bookstore, any computer store, and many other retail establishments.

Software:

The only software needed is a browser, which is usually included with any operating system. ResNET highly recommends the use of Mozilla Firefox for its added security features. Mozilla Firefox may be obtained at http://www.getfirefox.com. Sofware for E-mail is not necessary for accessing your UW-Whitewater E-mail, which may be accessed with a browser at http://post.uww.edu.

Acceptable Operating Systems:

For the following operating systems, "unsupported" means that the system will be allowed to connect to ResNET, but we cannot offer any help to get the system configured, nor will we fix it if something goes wrong. "Partially supported" means that we will try to make it work, but we cannot guarantee that it will work.

Fully Supported Operating Systems:

Windows 8.1
Windows 8
Mac OS 10.6 and higher
Windows 7
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Ultimate

Partially Supported Operating Systems:

Various Linux

Unsupported Operating Systems:

Windows Vista Starter
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Me *
Windows XP Home Edition *
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation
Apple MacOS 7.5.3 - 8.5 w/OpenTransport 1.1 (or above)
Windows XP Professional
Windows 2000 Professional
Windows 98 Second Edition
Apple MacOS 8.6 and above
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows 3.1
Windows NT 3.51 Workstation
IBM OS/2 Warp

* These operating systems have known problems when connecting to corporate-grade networks. These operating systems are designed for home use and not suited to operate properly on a large network. Though many users have not had problems with these operating systems, there have been cases where computers have not been able to connect or have stopped connecting while using these operating systems. Because of this, we strongly discourage users from using these operating systems if at all possible. For users who purchase a computer with these operating systems installed, we recommend purchasing Windows 8.1 at a discounted price from the Wisconsin Integrated Software Catalog (WISC).

Note that ANY operating system must use DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) to obtain IP, gateway, and DNS information. Hard-coded IP addresses are not allowed and will result in disconnection. All of the above systems are capable of DHCP, but it is the responsibility of the user to configure unsupported or not fully supported systems properly.

Unacceptable Operating Systems:
The following operating systems will NOT be allowed to connect to ResNET. Servers are listed here because we have many production servers on our network, and installation of student-run and operated networks could severely impact the administrative use of the network.

Any beta version of an operating system
Any Novell Netware server
Any Windows server
Any Other server OS

Please note: Only computers meeting or exceeding the minimum configuration will be allowed to connect to the Residential Network. We will attempt to connect all qualified machines, but please note that all machines may not be able to successfully connect. University Housing makes no guarantee that your machine will work on our network. We will provide a working network port; configuring the machine is up to the student. Be aware that some older models have presented major difficulties in getting connected. For any machine, there is no guarantee of successful connection.

We will allow any machine to attempt to connect. Be aware that older machines will be slow connecting and using the Web.