# Working with the Available Software sites

The Available Software Sites preference page allows you to define the software sites that are consulted when browsing for available software or updating the system. To manage the list of sites used by the system:

1. Open the Install/Update > Available Software Sites preference page to see the list of sites that are used to gather the available software and search for updates.
2. All sites registered in the system are shown in the list. Sites marked as Enabled are those that are used to search for updates and browse available software. Sites marked as Disabled are not consulted by the system. For example, you may wish to disable a site that is temporarily not available or experiencing network problems in order to speed up the search for updates.
3. Select a site to see optional information about the status of the site at the bottom of the page. For example, if the system has been unable to find the site on the network, the status will indicate that it is not available.
4. Click Test Connection to see if a site can be found by the system.

You may change the sites that are used by the system in several ways:

- To add sites to the system:
  - Click Add... to enter the location of a new site.
  - You may select a disabled site and click Enable in order to make it available to the system.
  - Click Import... to import a list of sites that was previously exported to a file.
- To remove sites from the system:
  - Select a site and click Disable if you want to temporarily stop using the site. This will keep the site in the list so that you can enable it later.
  - Click Remove to remove the site from the list of sites.
- Click Export... to save the list of sites to a file. This is useful for sharing site lists with other users or across multiple Eclipse installations.

### Related tasks

Adding a new software site
Installing new software
Scheduling automatic updates