User Accounts FAQ
We regularly get questions from people having trouble logging in to various computer systems on campus. Often, people are confused about which login they need to use in which place; hopefully this FAQ will help.
What are the different logins and how do I keep them straight?
The main ones that everyone needs to know about are your Wolf Web login, your email login, and your WOU network login. Some of you will also have logins for other systems, such as Banner INB, WebCT, or the wiki server.
What is my Wolf Web login?
This is the login you use when connecting to any of the Wolf Web (formerly Banner Web) systems. There are different systems for faculty, staff, and students, and they are used for such things as recording grades, registration for classes, buying parking permits, etc. You can recognize them by the fact that they tell you to use your social security number (without dashes) or your V-number as the login name, and your Banner PIN (Personal Identification Number) as a password. If you don't know your Banner PIN, you can use the "Forgot PIN" link to reset it, or go to the Account Lookup system (see below) to have it emailed to you.
Note that if you use the WOUPortal and have enabled the advanced features, it gives you a link to log into the Wolf Web systems without needing to remember your PIN. This is a nice shortcut which I use every time I need to log into Wolf Web; it means one less password to keep track of! (For faculty and staff, the advanced features only work on-campus, though.)
I'm having trouble logging in to Wolf Web. Who do I call?
It is important to remember that UCS doesn't control Banner logins, and we can't help you with them. If you are having trouble, please try the Forgot PIN link first, but if that doesn't work, please contact the Registrar's office. If you contact UCS about Wolf Web login problems, we will only be able to forward you to the Registrar's office, so please contact them directly at registrar@wou.edu or extension 88327 if you are unable to reset your PIN online.
What about my email login?
Naturally enough, you use this to get your email. The username is the part of your email address before the '@' symbol; for instance, if your WOU email address is "jdoe08@wou.edu", your username is "jdoe08". Your password is set through the Account Lookup system; if you have forgotten it, you need to go back there and reset it. (See below for instructions.) If you are accessing email through a desktop program rather than our web system, you will need to enter "sundown.wou.edu" for the incoming mail server. That server supports both POP3 and IMAP protocols. If you are on campus, the outgoing server is cougar.wou.edu, but if you are off campus, you need to use the outgoing email server supplied by your Internet Service provider.
Your email login is also used for many other systems on campus, especially web-based ones such as the WOUPortal, Moodle, and the forum server. This is because the login information is stored in our LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) database, which makes it easy for many different systems on the WOU network to check. This reduces the number of passwords you need to remember. If a program asks for your LDAP password, use your email password; those are just two different terms for the same thing. Note that your email password is stored in an encrypted format, so not even we can see what it is; if you forget it, you must reset it using Account Lookup.
And my network login? Isn't that the same as my email login?
The network login is what you use when you log in to a computer in your office, or in a lab, or onto the thin clients. The user name is the same as for your email account, and normally the password is also the same, but behind the scenes the network and email logins are stored in entirely separate databases, so it is possible for them to be different. We strongly recommend using the Account Lookup system when you need to change your password, because it will change both passwords at once and keep them the same.
Note that every few months, when you log into a Windows machine, you will see a notice that your password is expiring. That notice will tell you to click a button to change your password, but it will only change your network password, not your email password. We can't control what that notice says, but if we could, we would change it to tell everyone to go to the Account Lookup system instead of using the Windows password change system. If you do click the button and change your password, it's OK; it just means you'll have two separate passwords to keep track of. If you don't like this, you can use Account Lookup to change your email password to match the new network password. (You can't use it to change your network password back to what it was before; see below!)
So what's this "Account Lookup system" you keep mentioning?
As I mentioned above, the email and network passwords are stored in separate databases. We cannot use the same database for both, so the Account Lookup system helps make sure they are synchronized. When you first get your account, you need to use Account Lookup to set your password before you can log in. You can also use it to look up your WOU email address, V-number, or Banner PIN.
How do I use Account Lookup?
Go to http://www.wou.edu/accountlookup. The introductory page has two main links: "Set Email and Network Password" and "Retrieve banner pin". The Banner PIN link takes you to a page that asks you to enter your social security number or V-number, and then emails your Banner PIN to your WOU email address. The email and network password link takes you to a screen where you identify yourself with your Social Security Number (or SEVIS number, if you are an international student with no SSN) and your last name. You also need to enter text from an image that is displayed; this proves to the system that you are a person, and thus prevents automated attacks on our password database. If you are visually impaired or otherwise cannot read the graphic, please contact the Service Request Desk at extension 88925. That number is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Assuming you have entered everything correctly, you will be shown your account information, and given a button to reset your password. If that's what you came here to do, click the button.
Wow, those are a lot of rules for my password! What's that all about?
In the past, we had some problems with people using very insecure passwords. If someone else can guess your password, they can pretend to be you and do all sorts of nasty things; snoop through your private files, steal your print credits, send email as you, etc. You really don't want that to happen. Also, we in UCS really don't want that to happen, since we have to clean up the mess. So a few years ago we set up some rules to make sure that nobody's password can easily be guessed. If you don't understand the rules, please contact the UCS Service Request desk. To change your password, make up a new one according to the rules and enter it in the form. You'll need to enter it again to make sure you didn't make a typographical error the first time.
And please remember that even the most secure password in the world will not help you if you walk away from a computer without locking it or logging off! And when logging out of Windows, don't forget that you have to click OK to confirm it before walking away.
Why do I need to wait three minutes for my password to change?
The change to your email password takes effect right away, but because the network passwords are in a different database with special security, we have to use a separate process to change them. To reduce load on the server, that process only runs once every three minutes.
You said something about not being able to change a network password back to a previous one? Why is that?
For extra security, the network password database remembers the last several passwords you had, and will not let you re-use them. Unfortunately, because the network passwords are changed by a separate process from account lookup, it can't warn you in advance if there's an error of this kind. So please, just don't try re-using an old password, because it won't work even if you don't get an error.
Note that you *can* enter the password you are currently using on the network, if you want to set your email and blog passwords to match it. If you need to reset your blog password to match your network login, for instance, you don't have to change all your passwords; as long as you are careful to enter your password exactly the way you enter it when you log on to your computer (or how you entered it when you changed it in Windows,) it will work.
Why doesn't my email password work on the blog server?
The blog passwords are also in a separate database. As of November 2006, the Account Lookup system also resets your blog password; but if you haven't been to Account Lookup since then, your blog password will be different from your email password. We cannot look it up for you; just go to Account Lookup and enter your current password exactly as you enter it when you log on to the network. This will reset your blog password to match your email and network password.
Why doesn't my email password work for WebCT?
WebCT is completely separate from our other systems. Since usernames aren't always the same between WebCT and the other user databases, we cannot synchronize WebCT passwords automatically. If you use WebCT, you can change your own password to match your email password, or leave it different if you prefer. For most students, your username will be the same as your email username, and you will have received a temporary password when your account was created. The first time you log into WebCT, you will have to change that password. If you are having trouble logging in to WebCT, please contact Scott Carter in the Technology Resource Center at carters@wou.edu or extension 88848.
That's it for this week! Hopefully this made things more understandable and less confusing. Please feel free to email me if you haveinformational questions; however, if you are currently running into problems with a login, contact the appropriate person instead. If the problem is with Banner, contact the Registrar's office at registrar@wou.edu; if the problem is with WebCT, contact Scott Carter; and if the problem is with any other system, or if you don't know what system you are on, contact the UCS Service Request Desk at ucshelpdesk@wou.edu or extension 88925.