Unlocking the Mystery of Computer Accounts

 

Annie Yu

Fred and Mary are both CityU staff. Fred has already worked for a year while Mary is completely new. They do not seem to have anything in common except one thing. They do not understand the meaning of COMPUTER ACCOUNTS and haven't got a clue how these accounts can be used. When they both approach the CSC, CSC is more than happy to provide a full picture on the various types of accounts that are available:

For FIRST-TIME successful account applications, a full time CityU staff will use the same username/password pair to gain access to different types of computer accounts created for him/her. These accounts include:

1. A PERSONAL EMAIL account for accessing Eudora Pro, Pathworks Mail or PolyLink Email, whichever email system the staff prefers.
   

2. The account for accessing the DEPARTMENTAL NETWORK. If your office PC is connected to the network, you will be prompted to enter the username and password every time the PC is switched on. Once logged on, you will be able to use the software and services available on your departmental Staff network.
   

3. For teaching staff, you will be provided with a STUDENT NETWORK access account to use the PCs in the CSC Student Terminal Areas.
   

4. The University Electronic Message System, POLYLINK, is another computer account which you can use to communicate with students, staff, departmental offices and authorized external users. Its broadcasting and bulletin board functions are the most popular.
   

5. The CITYU INTRANET ACCOUNT for reading STAFF-ONLY” pages published on the CityU Web e.g. the Personal Leave (And Data) Enquiry System and the Computer Shop Buyer Guide within the CityU Intranet. Most staff are often confused about what password they should type here. The answer depends on when the staff applied for his/her FIRST computer account. If he/she applied before Semester B 1998, the initial password would be the staff ID number, like in Fred’s case. However, for applicants like Mary who applied after Semester B, the password is the one that she initially applied for and it is the same for all other accounts.
   

6. The UNIX ACCOUNT for putting up personal web pages for teaching, learning and communication. The steps for using this University-wide Personal Web Server can be found at http://personal.cityu.edu.hk/UserGuide/.
   
   

   
   

7. The Unix account mentioned above can also be used to access the remote dial-up service, CITYLINK PLUS, which allows one to connect directly to Internet from home. For complete details, please visit http://www.cityu.edu.hk/csc/dialup/.
   

   All the computer accounts mentioned above use the same password to start with. Now the next question is: how does one change the password to ensure security? Does changing the password for one account imply changing passwords for all the others? Unfortunately, the answer is "no". At this stage, it is not yet possible to fully synchronize the passwords for all computer accounts. Nevertheless, passwords can be changed via different means:
   

   COMPUTER ACCOUNTS	MEANS OF CHANGING PASSWORDS
   Dept. Network	On the CityU Network menu, select "Network and Environment Settings Menu" followed by "Change Account Password (Dept Network)"
   Student Network	Boot up the PC to the Student Network. On the CityU Network Menu, select "Change Login Password"
   Email, OpenVMS Polylink	On the CityU Network menu, select "Network and Environment Settings Menu" followed by "Change Account Password (Email, OpenVMS)"
   Intranet	Run the Netscape browser on the CTNET menu. Click the CityU Intranet link on CityU Home Page to enter CityU Intranet Web page. Click "Changing CityU Intranet Password for reading Staff Only Web Pages"
   Unix Account on Personal Web Server, CityuLink Plus	Telnet to personal.cityu.edu.hk and type "passwd" at the command prompt.

   
   

   

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   Computing Services Centre City University of Hong Kong ccnetcom@cityu.edu.hk