Accounts, Passwords and Logins

1. Introduction

• Everyone at Duke receives a NetID account issued by the Office of Information Technology.

• Core affiliates of Sociology receive departmental accounts.

It is the general and recommended practice for Sociology account ids to match your NetID. However, the password for your NetID should differ from the password used with other accounts. The purposes of NetID and Sociology accounts are summarized in the table below.

2. NetID Management

Basic management of your Duke NetID and related services is done by web browser through OIT's Account Self-Service Tool.

If you have forgotten your NetID password, contact the OIT Helpdesk (684-2200) for assistance.

3. Obtaining Sociology Accounts

Make account requests in person by coming to Room 140, Soc/Psych and asking for a Network Account Request form from a member of the computing staff. The form requires your signature, which indicates acceptance that the account is for your use only and that the password will not be shared with anyone.

New accounts for incoming graduate students are set up in a batch. Information regarding their use is provided each fall in an orientation session done by the computing staff.

Undergraduates are not provided accounts unless they are employed in some capacity by the department or are working on a research project sponsored by a faculty member. Undergraduate classroom computing should be conducted in OIT or Arts and Sciences computing labs, which are set up to accept NetID logins.

4. Choosing Strong Passwords

Selecting a strong password is important for overall security of our networks and your individual privacy. When setting up new accounts, you will be guided to select a strong initial password.

If someone learns one of your passwords, change it immediately!

Selecting a good password that you like, can easily type and can remember is hard work. Some simple guidelines for password selection include:

• It is 8 or more characters.

• It is not a dictionary word in any language.

• It is easy to remember – a nonsense word or phrase or an abbreviation of some familiar phrase.

• It contains at least one symbolic character, such as: ~!@#$%^&*()+=.

5. Linux Logins

Linux logins to Sociology systems are typically done from PCs in the department, from home PCs over Internet connections that you have established by broadband, or from laptops over wireless connection.

Three principal servers are accessed in Sociology.

• login.soc.duke.edu - is a general login server that may be used for reading mail and transferring files

• paradigm.soc.duke.edu - is a primary compute server, with 24GB memory and two quad-core Xeon processors (8 cores), for statistical processing

• verstehen.soc.duke.edu - is a secondary compute server, with 8GB memory and two dual-core Xeon processors (4 cores), for statistical processing

With your Duke NetID, you can access the OIT Linux system.

• login1.oit.duke.edu or login2.oit.duke.edu - are general purpose Linux login servers

All of the above systems are accessed by means of secure shell (SSH) clients, which are the replacement for traditional telnet and ftp access. They use end-to-end encryption of your session to ensure that your activities and password cannot be snooped.

Departmental PCs are configured with an SSH client consisting of a secure terminal component for command line sessions and a secure file transfer portion for file uploads and downloads. Home PCs and personal laptops should be configured with one of the SSH clients distributed through the OIT Software License Office. We recommend F-Secure for Windows systems. Others options include SSH.com Secure Shell or PuTTY for Windows.

Mac clients provide SSH natively through the terminal application. F-Secure is also available for OS X.

6. Linux Logouts

Remember to logout from all Linux secure shell sessions.

A terminal session on any type of Linux system can typically be ended by typing exit at the Linux prompt and pressing <Enter>.

7. How to Change Your Linux and Domain Account Passwords

Your linux and domain passwords should be kept synchronized. This is done with a password script run under your linux account.

Perform an ssh login to login.soc.duke.edu. At the prompt, type passwd and press <Enter>. This launches a password changing script that first changes your linux password followed by a second step to change your domain password. See the figure below.

Enter your old linux password when prompted. Enter your new password when prompted, then a second time to confirm its correctness. If the two new entries match and the password is acceptable, the password is changed.

The script proceeds to change of your domain password. Enter the old domain password (same as your old linux password) and then enter the new domain password twice, using the same new password you entered for linux.

If the new password you apply is determined to be weak or too similar to the previous one, the change will fail and you will need to rerun the script with a better password. We will ask you to change your password if, during a routine security audit, it is determined to be easily cracked.

• bart : ~ > passwd
  
  Step 1: Changing your Unix(NIS) password.
  Your new Unix(NIS) password must differ from your old
  password by at least 3 characters.
  Changing password for user bart.
  Changing password for bart
  (current) UNIX password:
  New UNIX password:
  Retype new UNIX password:
  passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
  
  Step 2: Changing your (SMB) Windows file sharing password.
  When prompted, please use your old UNIX password for the "Old SMB Password".
  If this is mistyped, you will need to reset your password again.
  Old SMB password:
  New SMB password:
  Retype new SMB password:
  Password changed for user bart
  bart : ~ >

If you have forgotten your Linux password, contact Bob Jackson for assistance.

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