Oklahoma State University Computer Science Department

The Computer Science Department main computer is a Sun Sunfire v880. The Sunfire v880 is a UNIX based computer running Sun's variant of UNIX called Solaris. The machine resides in a locked room inside the Mathematical Sciences building and is only accessable thru the campus network. It's network name is a.cs.okstate.edu.

Since no one except the system managers have physical access to the Sunfire v880, users of the system must first gain access to the network thru one of the University run labs; from a personal machine in one's dorm room; or from home thru a private ISP. The public lab maintained by the Computer Science Department is MS 222. This lab holds Sun Workstations from which access can be gained to the a.cs.okstate.edu . To access the Computer Science Department's main computer, and most computers connected to the Internet, requires an account with a userid and a password. Each semester the department's Sunfire v880 has a little over 3200 user accounts. With a large number of potential users, one of the problems system administrators face is how to effectvely and securely hand out account infomation to all the users.

How do I obtain my userid and default password?

To obtain your userid and default password, you have to go through ITD's Master Password System. The Master Password System is a ITD service for accessing and changing various parameters associated with ITD computer labs, not the Computer Science Department's or any other non-ITD labs on campus. However, it does contain userids and default passwords which the department does have access too, and it does offer a fairly secure and effecient way to distribute them to our students.

The process works as follows: When a new person comes to OSU, either faculty, staff, or student, they are assigned a OSU ID (a 9 digit number) and given a OSU ID card (with their picture on it). By taking their OSU ID to one of the following locations:

ITD Helpdesk, Math Sciences 113
ID Services, Student Union 432
a ITD Computer Lab
- Math Sciences 108
- Classroom Building 406-408
- Bennett Basement
- Student Union 065
- Willham Mezzanine

There they can scan their OSU ID card and set what is known as a "Master Password", which in conjunction with their OSU ID (that 9 digit number) can access the ITD's Master Password System and obtain their userid and default password.

For more information see "Finding My Initial Password" under "How Do I?" at ITD's homepage

Type in your password. The first time, you must use the one that you have for your University E-mail password. If you make any mistakes in typing and have to backspace, you will get an error message and you will have to retype in your login id and password again. Type in your e-mail password and press the ENTER key. The password will NOT appear on the screen.

You may change your password by reading the instructions on Changing your password on a UNIX machine.

You will then be logged on to the Computer Science Department computer. You should see a $ prompt on your screen. In order to get off the machine, type in exit at the $ prompt. Changing your password on a UNIX machine

If you want to change your password at some other time besides the first time, you can follow these instructions below. Type in:

passwd

This command allows you to change your password. When you type in "passwd", you will be prompted for your old password. It then prompts you for the new one twice.

Rules for passwords: You should make sure that it is not easy for someone else to guess your password as they could then access your account. These are some rules:

DO NOT USE a name of someone or a word from the dictionary. These are too easy for someone to guess and gain access to your account.
It should be at least 8 characters in length.
It must contain at least two alphabetic characters and at least one number or special character. Alphabetic refers to all upper and lower case letters. Do NOT USE either the @ or the # as special characters in your password.
Each password should differ from the user’s login name.
New passwords must differ from the old ones by at least three characters.

Do Not give your password to anyone. If they misuse your account, you will be responsible for any damage they may do. You can lose your account on the CS computer also.

With the warnings out of the way...

A brief history of Userids and Passwords at OSU

The first UNIX system arrived in the Computer Science Department in mid-80's. Access to this machine was very limited and it was easy to create and hand out unique userids and passwords by hand for the limited number of users.

Then, in the late-80s, the department started teaching classes on this early system and the number of users not only skyrocketed, but started drastically changing between semesters. Maintaining the growing number of users by hand quickly became prohibitive.

Therefore, the first system administrators of the department created a system to maintain userids based on course enrollment, thus automating a task they could no longer do by hand. The system worked so well other departments wanted access this information, which helped solve another problem. Before if a student had access to two machines each in different departments, most likely they had to remember two different userids. If they had access to three different machines in three different departments that could mean remembering three different userids. With the new system, Computer Science assigned and maintained a single list of userids and other departments accessed the list to generate accounts on their respective machines. This helped eliminate confusion by mapping one userid to a single person.

In the mid-90s, userid maintenance was passed to the University's central computer group ITD and evolved into what is now known as PR&SM through the PUD database and the Master Password System. The PUD database contains, among other things, userids and a randomly generated default password. The Computer Science Department has access to these userids and default passwords for it's faculty, staff, and students, and uses this information to generate accounts on it's Enterprise 3000 and v880.

System Administrators