# no Internet during install



## mrcoolhead (May 6, 2010)

Why do I need to connect to the Internet while I am installing from the ports collection?
Is there a way to install from ports and not be connected to the Internet?


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## wblock@ (May 6, 2010)

The source ("dist") files for each port have to be downloaded from somewhere.  If you have only a limited connection to the net, you can use `# make fetch` or `# make fetch-recursive` to download the files without building the port.

Or you can use `# make fetch-list` to show the URLs of the files needed so you can download them by hand.


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## mrcoolhead (May 6, 2010)

So I am guessing that if I didn't have an Internet connection that I cannot ever install from ports?


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## wblock@ (May 6, 2010)

Unless you can get the distfiles elsewhere, no.  Of course, you can install packages, which are precompiled versions of the ports: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/packages-using.html


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