Equipment and Configuration

Your workstation(s) must meet the following requirements. You are responsible for ensuring compatibility and compliance with the requirements. If we determine that any system failure is caused by incompatible equipment configuration or failure to comply with the workstation requirements and not the fault of GoSystem Tax, it is your responsibility to remedy the problem.

If you use equipment, configurations, software, or operating systems that we do not support and that we deem incompatible with our software or systems, and you request that we provide telephone or on-site support, such support is chargeable at the current consulting rate plus any expenses related to direct travel, meals, and lodging.

Please refer to the Customer Center web site for periodic updates and information about plans for future supported models.

Equipment Required for Operation

We recommend that you review the Microsoft Product Lifecycle Information found at http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=lifecycle when planning for the upcoming tax season.

Workstation Requirements

Component	Current Support	Notes
Processor	2 GHz AMD or Intel® processor
Operating System	Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit) Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)	We support 64-bit operating systems for Windows 8.1 for the current tax year and preceding nine tax years. Local machine administrator rights are required for the initial installation of each year’s application.
Operating System Add-ons	.NET 4.6 Framework Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 C++ runtime and Visual Studio 2015 C++ runtime Microsoft Access database engine 2010	Missing prerequisites are automatically installed during installation. Full and complete .Net 4.6 or later must be installed on Windows 10 machines.
Memory	4 GB of RAM (minimum)	Additional memory, page file, and/or available free hard drive space will be necessary for processing large returns and reports. Depending on the level of chart detail, number of states, entities, partners, and so forth, several hundred MB of temporary free disk space may be required.
Internet Browser	Microsoft Edge Chrome version 71.0.3578 or higher Internet Explorer 10.0, 11.0	The Compatibility view is no longer supported. Please remove *.fasttax.com from your list of sites. Under Options > Preferences, you can select how you would like returns opened (last selection). There are three selections: open in Chrome, open in Internet Explorer (default), or ask your preference. After the first open of a return, Chrome has been found to be faster in subsequent opens.
Display	1024 × 768 or higher-resolution monitor

Printers

Printers	Supported Drivers	Notes
HP Laser Printers	HP Universal Print Driver for Windows [PCL 5 or 6]	Consult manufacturer guidelines. Additional memory may be required to print large returns or reports.
Non-HP Laser Printers	Native PCL 6 Driver	Consult manufacturer guidelines. Additional memory may be required to print large returns or reports.

Supported Drivers

Notes

HP Laser Printers

HP Universal Print Driver for Windows [PCL 5 or 6]

Consult manufacturer guidelines.

Additional memory may be required to print large returns or reports.

Non-HP Laser Printers

Native PCL 6 Driver

Consult manufacturer guidelines.

Additional memory may be required to print large returns or reports.

Connectivity

Component	Requirement
Internet Connectivity	Broadband connection required through: Internet Service Provider (recommend Tier 1 provider) OR Dedicated connection to our facility (requires registered Transaction Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) addresses).
Firewall Requirements	Security policies, firewall rules, proxy rules, and router packet filters must allow outbound connections (and inbound replies) on destination ports 80 and 443 to the Class “B” network address 164.57.0.0. The source port selection uses standard port numbers 1024 and above.
Proxy Server Access	Proxy server access to the Web servers is supported. However, caching of page content is not supported and must be disabled. Proxy Server access to the application servers is supported ONLY in transparent mode. The proxy server must not translate the TCP/IP address of the application server. The client PC must be able to establish a connection using the actual TCP/IP address and port numbers of the application server with no application “awareness” of a proxy server.
Protocols	HTTP (TCP/IP port 80) and HTTPS (TCP/IP port 443) protocols are required.

Trusted Sites

For Internet Explorer users only

We recommend that you use the Trusted Sites Zone in Internet Explorer for Thomson Reuters’s applications instead of the Internet Zone so that you do not remove useful security messages for other non-Thomson Reuters Internet sites.

The following sites should be marked as trusted sites:

*.fasttax.com
*.ThomsonReuters.com
www.riahelp.com

If you have purchased e-Form RS, also add eFormRS.com.

Connectivity and Security

Connectivity

You can select one of the following methods of connecting to GoSystem Tax:

Internet connection
dedicated connection to our facility.

In all cases, the user is responsible for the cost of establishing and maintaining connectivity.

Internet Connection

You can connect to GoSystem Tax directly through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). This includes access to the Internet from a workstation on your LAN, or using dial-up.

Dedicated Connection

You can connect to GoSystem Tax through a dedicated connection, which requires registered Transaction Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) addresses. Contact your Account Representative to obtain additional information about establishing this type of connectivity.

Using a dedicated connection requires registered TCP/IP addresses when communicating with GoSystem Tax servers. Other requirements may be necessary to establish a dedicated connection.

Supported Internet Service Providers

You can connect to GoSystem Tax through any ISP, though we recommend that you use a reputable Tier 1 provider.

Security

Firewall Information

The following information defines the requirements for TCP/IP communications from any client network to the GoSystem Tax Network. This information is specifically designed to help you set up security policies in your Firewall, Proxy Server, or router to allow communications from your client PCs to the GoSystem Tax Network. Connectivity between the client network and the GoSystem Tax Network is assumed to exist either through the Internet or through some other previously established connectivity.

Network Address

We use a registered Class “B” TCP/IP address of 164.57.0.0. GoSystem Tax exists within that address space. The architecture of GoSystem Tax uses a large number of Application Servers; the number of these servers can change at any time, as well as the TCP/IP addresses. Because of this architecture, the entire Class “B” address space must be used in any security policies, Firewall or Proxy Server rules, or router packet filters.

Routing within the client network must be configured to allow the client PCs using GoSystem Tax to access the GoSystem Tax Network. This may be done using standard “default” routing, or it may require specific routes to be set up within the client network. The client’s network administrator will have to establish the appropriate routing to meet this requirement.

Web Servers

The GoSystem Tax Web servers use industry standard HTTP and Secure HTTP protocols. The requirements for communications with the GoSystem Tax Web servers are itemized below:

DNS Name Resolution is not used for the Application Servers.
Proxy server access to the Web servers is supported. However, caching of page content is not supported and must be disabled.
Network Address Translation (NAT) is supported for both client addresses and Web server addresses.
HTTP (TCP/IP port 80) and HTTPS (TCP/IP port 443) protocols are required.
Connections are outbound only from the client to the server.
Security policies, firewall rules, proxy rules, and router packet filters must allow outbound connections (and inbound replies) on destination ports 80 and 443 to the Class “B” network address 164.57.0.0. The source port selection uses standard port numbers 1024 and above.
We require you to configure any security scanning appliance monitoring ports 80 and 443 so that it ignores traffic to the 164.57.0.0 subnet. The decompress-scan-recompress cycle introduces a significant delay into the communication network; this delay can cause communication timeouts that manifest themselves as Remote Server Error dialog boxes. Because traffic to the 164.57.0.0 subnet is encrypted, the web scanner appliance will never see a suspicious result.

Application Servers

The GoSystem Tax Application Servers use TCP/IP communications from the client PC to the Server. The requirements for communications with the GoSystem Tax Application Servers are itemized below:

DNS Name Resolution is not used for the Application Servers.
Proxy Server access to the application servers is supported ONLY in transparent mode. The proxy server must not translate the TCP/IP address of the application server. The client PC must be able to establish a connection using the actual TCP/IP address and port numbers of the application server with no application “awareness” of a proxy server.
Network Address Translation (NAT) is supported for the client addresses but is NOT supported for the application server addresses.
Connections are outbound only from the client to the server.

RS Resources/equipment.htm/TY2021

Last Modified: 10/12/2020

Last System Build: 09/25/2022