The Alertus Desktop client is designed to be as light-weight as possible. The application requires less than 20 MB of free hard disk space, and uses less than 15 MB of memory while running. Network bandwidth use is less than 1KB per minute during regular (non-emergency) use.

Students, Staff, Faculty or other members of the McMaster community (see note about network connectivity)

Alertus is designed to alert members of the McMaster community during an emergency that poses an imminent, ongoing, campus-wide threat or danger to the safety of the McMaster community. This could include, but is not limited to, a tornado forecasted to strike McMaster or an active shooter at large on campus.

Alertus will NOT be used for general crime alerts or other situations on campus that do not pose an imminent threat or danger. It will also not be used for non-emergency communications such as campus event announcements, class reminders, news or advertisements.

Tests of the Alertus system are conducted at the beginning of each semester.

Only computers connected to the McMaster network will receive alerts, either hard wired or using McMaster Wireless. Please follow the instructions from UTS here to configure McMaster Wireless.

The Alertus Desktop client icon will indicate your connection status. Yellow means it is connected to the McMaster network and notifications will be displayed. Red means there is no connection, and notifications will not be displayed.

For assistance connecting to the McMaster network, please contact “UTS.

No personal information is gathered or transmitted from computers running Alertus Desktop, in accordance with the McMaster University Statement on Collection of Personal Information and Protection of Privacy, and UTS Policy on Information Security (2010).

The alert screen displays the time and date that the alert was issued. McMaster Security Services can cancel an alert as needed, as well as provide an ‘expiry time’. Desktop alert clients that come online after an alert has been cancelled / has expired will NOT display the alert.

The Alertus Desktop client will only contact the server it is configured to look for. Once a connection is made, cryptographic verification is used. The software uses a uniquely identifiable encryption key, and a matching certificate which is securely signed by Alertus. The client requests this certificate from the server, and verifies that it was issued by Alertus. When the server sends a message, it uses the encryption key to digitally sign the message. If the signature is invalid, or the certificate was not issued by Alertus, the message will not be displayed.

No problem, just follow the instructions for removing the application appropriate to your operating system:

Windows 7 – Click on Start, Control Panel, Programs and Features. Select the Alertus Desktop Alert and click Uninstall.

Windows XP – Click on Start, Control Panel, Add / Remove Programs. Select Alertus Desktop Alert and click Remove.

Mac – refer to your computers user manual.

The Alertus Desktop client is only active when the computer is powered on and logged in. This means that a computer a) in standby b) at the log-in screen c) in screen saver lockout – will not display the alert (until a user logs in).

Two versions of Alertus Desktop are available:

1. Alertus Desktop End User – this version is intended for end users who have administrative rights / own their own PC. This version is configured to allow the user to close the Alertus client and choose whether they want it to launch on startup.

For Windows users, click here (DotNet 3.2) or here (DotNet 4.5)

For Mac OS users, click here

2. Alertus Desktop Managed Environment – this version is intended for departmental IT administrators / managers and is configured to not allow the end user to close or disable the Alertus client.

For Windows users, click here (DotNet 3.2) or here (DotNet 4.5)

For Mac OS users, click here