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Downloading Course Materials

Use these directions to download all of the digital file(s) that you will need for your SANS course. These downloads can be very large and should be completed before you start class. If you are attending a live course event, the site venue's Internet connection will likely be insufficient for you to download all of the necessary course materials.

Important notes

  • All downloads should be completed before the first day of class or beginning travel. File sizes may be 1GB to 100GB or more. Downloading all course materials may require as much as an hour of keyboard time, plus a varying amount of download time based on your connection speed.
  • Course books are protected with a password that must be entered each time a protected PDF file is opened. We suggest you keep this password in a password manager.
  • By downloading these files and saving the SANS-provided course book password, you will have ongoing access to your course materials. The expiration date shown on the SANS site refers to the date when you can no longer download materials from your SANS account.
  • Due to copyright protections, notations have been disabled from the course book PDFs. In lieu of highlighting, we encourage taking notes on a separate document and including page numbers so you can reference at a later date.

Notice

Content and screenshots in this section are examples and do not reflect your specific course ID and name.

Preparation Before Class

Before proceeding to the downloads themselves, please take a moment to review a few short videos that include important information and will help you to get the most out of the lab portions of your SANS course.

Download Instructions

We've provided a video that demonstrates the process of downloading your class materials, available at https://sansurl.com/classprep-downloading.

  1. Visit sans.org and click "Log In" at the top of the page.

    SANS Homepage with Log In link annotated

  2. Enter the email address that you used to register for your course and your password, then click "Login".

    SANS Login page

  3. Click "Course Material Downloads"

    SANS Course Material Downloads link

    You may have a list of multiple courses. If so, select the course that you are downloading the materials for.

    Course selection list

  4. To access the course materials, you must sign the License Agreement. To do so, please click on the link.

    Sign License Agreement link

  5. Read the agreement, then scroll to the bottom and check the box to agree and re-enter your SANS Account password. Click on Submit when complete.

    Submitting signed license agreement

  6. The following screen will differ, depending on the course you are taking. There may be several sections, potentially including the following. Not all courses have all sections.

    1. Media / Lab Files
      1. This section may have subsections labeled "Priority - Required for Day 1" and "Additional Required Files"
    2. Course Handouts
    3. Course Books

    Course material download sections

  7. Download all files provided for your class! These may be between 1GB to over 100GB, so plan your time accordingly. We recommend placing these into a single subdirectory on your system, where all files related to your course can be held together. This also makes it easier for you to find them. Be sure these are backed up, so the files are safe from accidental deletion or corruption.

    If your course downloads include a "Priority - Required for Day 1" section, the files listed here should be downloaded first. Some or all of these files may be "ISO" files. ISO files are archives containing numerous files, similar to a zip or 7zip file. However, ISO files can be mounted to your host computer in the same way that a USB or network device can be mounted. See the "Mounting Course ISOs" document at https://sansurl.com/mounting-isos for details on how to mount the ISO file(s) for your course.

    Course books can be downloaded individually or as a combined PDF file.

  8. Note that each course book is password protected. You will need the SANS-provided password to open each book. Click the "Show" button to see your personally-assigned password.

    Show course book password

    This is the password needed to open your course books. Click the "Copy" button to copy the password to your system's clipboard. We also recommend saving this in a password manager so you can continue to access your course books past the access expiration date shown in your account.

    Copy course book password

    When opening the protected PDF files, you will need to provide the password provided in the dialog shown above. The process to enter the password will differ depending on your PDF reading software. Consult the documentation for your software if you need assistance with this step.

  9. The "Course Material Downloads" link will show your course materials for four months after your class ends. After this time, your materials can no longer be downloaded. However, the password for the PDF copies of your courseware will remain in your SANS account after the download expires. The password for older courseware can be downloaded by selecting the "My Orders" link and then finding the order and copying the PDF password for use on files you've already downloaded.

    SANS My Orders link Copy course book password

  10. If you are having difficulty downloading or accessing your course materials, contact support@sans.org for assistance.