diff --git a/public/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/BaseTest.java b/public/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/BaseTest.java
index e33f6717a..a415481fd 100755
--- a/public/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/BaseTest.java
+++ b/public/java/test/org/broadinstitute/sting/BaseTest.java
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ public abstract class BaseTest {
     public static final String hg19Intervals = intervalsLocation + "whole_exome_agilent_1.1_refseq_plus_3_boosters.Homo_sapiens_assembly19.targets.interval_list";
     public static final String hg19Chr20Intervals = intervalsLocation + "whole_exome_agilent_1.1_refseq_plus_3_boosters.Homo_sapiens_assembly19.targets.chr20.interval_list";
 
+    public static final boolean REQUIRE_NETWORK_CONNECTION = false;
     public static final String networkTempDir;
     public static final File networkTempDirFile;
 
@@ -108,15 +109,20 @@ public abstract class BaseTest {
         // Set the Root logger to only output warnings.
         logger.setLevel(Level.WARN);
 
-        networkTempDirFile = IOUtils.tempDir("temp.", ".dir", new File("/broad/shptmp/" + System.getProperty("user.name")));
-        networkTempDirFile.deleteOnExit();
-        networkTempDir = networkTempDirFile.getAbsolutePath() + "/";
+        if ( REQUIRE_NETWORK_CONNECTION ) {
+            networkTempDirFile = IOUtils.tempDir("temp.", ".dir", new File("/broad/shptmp/" + System.getProperty("user.name")));
+            networkTempDirFile.deleteOnExit();
+            networkTempDir = networkTempDirFile.getAbsolutePath() + "/";
 
-        // find our file sources
-//        if (!fileExist(hg18Reference) || !fileExist(hg19Reference) || !fileExist(b36KGReference)) {
-//            logger.fatal("We can't locate the reference directories.  Aborting!");
-//            throw new RuntimeException("BaseTest setup failed: unable to locate the reference directories");
-//        }
+            // find our file sources
+            if (!fileExist(hg18Reference) || !fileExist(hg19Reference) || !fileExist(b36KGReference)) {
+                logger.fatal("We can't locate the reference directories.  Aborting!");
+                throw new RuntimeException("BaseTest setup failed: unable to locate the reference directories");
+            }
+        } else {
+            networkTempDir = null;
+            networkTempDirFile = null;
+        }
     }
 
     /**