College of Engineering | Computer Science and Engineering

Username and Password

CSE user-names are based on enrollment.  If you are enrolled for a CSE class, then you have a CSE account.  There is a 2 day delay between registration signing you up and when we receive your enrollment.  If you enrolled yesterday, wait another day. 

If you do not know your user-name, you should login with the guest login. See your instructor or TA for more assistance.
We will NOT change passwords over an email request. You must stop by with a picture ID.

Password changes can be done in a CSE Windows lab, linux lab or by the web.  The first login procedure explains more.

Once you know your username you may login. Your password will be your PID including the capital `A' at the beginning. When you log in for the first time, you will be forced to change your password. After this you should change your password frequently. We suggest doing so once a month. Use the command passwd to change your password. The program enforces the following:

A password must:

• Be at least 7 characters long.
• Contain at least 4 different characters.
• Contain at least 2 characters which are not lowercase letters.
• Contain at least 2 characters which are not uppercase letters.
• Contain at least 2 characters which are not numerals.
• Contain at least 1 alphanumeric character.
• Not have a middle of all lowercase, uppercase, or numeric characters.

Password examples:

• Bad passwords: secret, aSECRET9, $owndpsuF, a123456b, only1one
• Good passwords: 3bar4goo, AnYth1nG, only1onE

For instance, if I wanted to change my password, this is what I would type, and what I should see:
Login to Arctic with your id and password
prompt> passwd
Changing SMB Windows password which will then change the NIS unix password
Old SMB password: xxxxxxxx
New SMB password: yyyyyyyy
Retype new SMB password: yyyyyyyy
Password changed for user

In the example above,

• xxxxxxxx would have been my old login password
• yyyyyyyy would have been my new login password which I would have had to enter twice (to prevent typing errors)
• And, the last message would mean that my password was changed on the SMB password server. Passwords exists for linux (NIS) and windows (SMB). SMB changes the windows side, which in turn changes the linux side.