<p>The college I am about to go to soon, requires me to register my laptop before I can access the college’s network. Is that common usually for some colleges?</p>
<p>Also, not only that, they require me to download and install THEIR antivirus program (which is free by the way) to pass the pre-register test. I can’t just use my own antivirus program. Why can’t I use my own? Do you guys have similar problems like that? Mine antivirus program is a good one to use.</p>
<p>The school I plan to go to does require that. They then kick unregistered computers off the network to prevent abuse.</p>
<p>Not sure what the anti-virus program is all about.</p>
<p>I spent a week at a small college in Maine attending a conference and had to get my laptop checked out and “approved” before I could use their wifi network.</p>
<p>Pretty common process. Their network, their rules.</p>
<p>It’s because they don’t want infected computers on their network, and it’s easier and more standardized if everyone uses the same anti-virus program. If they allow any antivirus, that’s almost the same as not requiring any.</p>
<p>At my school we can use an unencrypted, no password wifi, or we can log into our school accounts and ‘register’ our computer’s MAC address and install some networking program and change some settings to use the Protected, encrypted Wifi.</p>