Have We Got Passwords!
Participants in the PCs for Families program have several passwords for
protecting accounts. These are easily confused, and the purpose of this
page is to help you manage them. Above all, remember them - if you
lose a password it may be difficult to get it reset!
Passwords should be unusual sequences of upper and lower case letters and
numerals because there are well-known password cracking programs that can
find valid passwords by trying out all combinations. Normally passwords
should have at least 6 characters, so that guessing the passwords will not
be so easy.
On Our Mail Server
Your server password protects your mail account on our mail server in the
Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech. The project support staff is
responsible for setting your passwords on this server, which means that
you cannot change them yourself.
Should we have to change your password for any reason, it must also be
changed on your PC, because your PC sends this password to the mail server
whenever it attempts to get your mail. If a student's password is changed,
it must also be changed on their PC at school. In MAIL, under Settings/Network
Settings you will see the following window. Enter your mail server
password in the red field!
On Your Own PC
You can create as many local mailboxes on your PC as you wish, and you may
keep other people from using your mailboxes with a password. The purpose of
these mailboxes is just to keep the files of one user from getting mixed up
with those of another. If you all trust each other, we suggest that you not
password protect your mailboxes on your PC. If you wish to password protect
a mailbox on your PC, in MAIL, under Settings/Password you will see the
following window. Just fill in the three fields.
Then, whenever you enter MAIL on your PC, you must enter your local password
in the green field shown below. If you have no local password, just type a
carriage return. Note that this password has nothing to do with your BEV
password!
Citizens InterNET
Citizens is the company that provides your dialup connection to the
Internet. When you connect to the Internet, a dialup utility on your PC
called Dunce sends your Citizens password to Citizens to identify you. Your
Citizens password will probably never change. However, should it change, you
need to enter the correct password into Dunce. Right click on the dunce cap
in the lower right corner of your screen. Enter your password in the red
field!
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