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Guidelines for Selecting and Changing Passwords
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If you've been directed to this page by the IT Shop staff, and asked to change your e-mail password, then please follow the
instructions and guidelines below. If you have any questions you should direct them to support@chem.ufl.edu.
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What makes a good password?
When selecting a new password you should follow these guidelines:
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The longer your password the better. Your password should have at least 7 characters.
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Your password should not be able to be looked up in any language dictionary. With today's faster computers a
cracker can compare your password with every word in the dictionary in a matter of minutes.
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Never user passwords that consists of only lower case letters. Your password should contain a mixture of
letters (upper ∓ lower), numbers, and special punctuation characters.
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Don't use personal information as your password. Personal information such as your name, family member's name,
pets, your social security number, phone number, etc. make for bad passwords.
One recommend method for making a good password is:
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Choose two short words (or a big one that you split) and concatenate them together with a punctuation character between them
(or a digit if you can only use alphanumeric characters). For example: 'dog+F18' or 'comP7UTer'. Note that 'dog', 'F18' or 'computer' are in dictionaries but as the
passwords use punctuation or digits, mixed-case character, they are really hard to guess.
To change your password:
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use telnet or ssh to connect to chem.ufl.edu
MS-Windows users can click Start, choose Run,
and enter the command 'telnet chem.ufl.edu'
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login using your current username and password to authenticate yourself to the server
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at the
TERM=(ansi) prompt just press <Enter>
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once logged in, at the shell command prompt, issue the passwd command, press <Enter> and follow the prompts.
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You will first be prompted for your existing login password, followed by your new password, and finally confirmation of your
new password.
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That process looks something like this...
% passwd
passwd: Changing password for <username>
Enter login password:
New password:
Re-enter new password:
passwd (SYSTEM): passwd successfully changed for <username>
Please send e-mail to support@chem.ufl.edu or stop by the IT Shop (LEI 116-D) if you
have any problems changing your UF/Chemistry e-mail password.
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