Laptop
To get the most from some courses, students will be required to bring their own laptop computer to connect to the training network.
Ensure your laptop is x86 compatible, 1.5 GHz CPU or greater, at least 1 GB RAM, has a DVD drive, and an Ethernet adapter. For classes that require specialized hardware, such as wireless security, you will be provided with the correct hardware
You are required to bring Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista (Business or Ultimate), Windows 7 (Professional or Ultimate), or Windows 2003 / 2008 as a real operating system or as a virtual machine. Other versions of Windows may not work.
You must have Administrative rights sufficient to install software on your laptop. You may also be required to disable your firewall or anti-virus tools for some exercises, so ensure that you have the required privileges to do so.
We will use VMWare to run various Windows and Linux systems during class exercises, so ensure that VMWare Player 1.0 or VMWare Workstation 5.0 or later is installed prior to arrival. Other software you may wish to pre-load includes:
- Adobe Reader (ensure that it is most current version)
- BackTrack VM
- PKZip, and similar archiving utilities
Remember – you will be connected to a network with other security professionals. Do not have any sensitive data stored on the system!
