 <p>By default maven checks dependencies in your local repository first, then on external repositories. The only case which will make maven check external repositories, is the use of snapshots.</p> <p>If you use snapshots, you can use the <code>&lt;updatePolicy&gt;</code> markup to change when your external repository will be checked.</p> <p>If you wan to work in offline mode you can either set a temporary offline option on your mvn command with the "-o" option, or you can set it up in your "~/.m2/settings.xml" with <code>&lt;offline&gt;true&lt;/offline&gt;</code>.</p> <hr> <p>Before you do so, remember to use the <code>dependecy:go-offline</code> mojo to download your dependency once before you really activate the offline mode.</p> <hr> <p><strong>Resources :</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://maven.apache.org/settings.html#Repositories" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Maven - Repositories</a></li> <li><a href="http://maven.apache.org/settings.html#Simple_Values" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Maven - simple settings values</a></li> <li><a href="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-dependency-plugin/go-offline-mojo.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Maven - dependecy:go-offline</a></li> </ul>