Creating a
OIT account

Quick Start

If you don't want to read all of this information, you may wish to use the Quick Start for Creating a OIT Account. This will guide you through the process of creating an account.

What is a OIT computing account?

You use a OIT computer account to create your username and password. These allow you to use most OIT computer-based or information services where users must be identified.

When do I need a OIT computing account?

You need a OIT computing account in order to login to the OIT UNIX systems, to use remote services based on those systems (e.g. reading email and news), to use the general Rutgers dialup lines, to use the public PC's and Macs at most locations, and to use administrative web applications.

Who can get an account?

Any Rutgers student, full-time faculty member, or full-time staff member can create an account for themselves using automatic account creation software.

Other faculty and staff and certain guests can get accounts if their department submits a request for a "guest account".

University departments can get "departmental accounts" and student organizations can get "student organization accounts". These are useful where you want to associate a web page or email address with a department, project, or organization rather than an individual. It allows more than one person to access the account, and it simplifies handing off responsibility from one person to another. Departmental accounts can be used for projects and organizations other than actual University departments. (In New Brunswick, departmental accounts are also called "become accounts", because a command called "become" is used to access them.)

What computers will my account work with?

There are separate accounts for faculty/staff and students. There are also separate accounts for Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick. This results in the following 6 kinds of accounts:

The label (e.g. "clam") is the name of the computer that you will use. You'll want to remember that, since you have to connect to that computer in order to create an account, and that name becomes part of your Internet email address (e.g. username@clam.rutgers.edu). And the label becomes part of your Internet accessible web page (e.g. clam.rutgers.edu/~username).

Note: the respective systems are set up to support the colleges that operate on the respective campuses. Therefore only if you are registered to one of those colleges can you create an account on that system, otherwise you will need to initiate a request similar to the guest procedure. The one notable exception is that all full-time faculty and staff can create accounts on rci in New Brunswick.

Note: if you have an account of the same type on more than one campus, your username and password will be the same for all accounts. For example, if you have a student account at both Camden and New Brunswick, it will have the same username and password. Student (or Instuctional Computing Initiative-ICI) and faculty/staff (or Research Computing Initiative-RCI) account passwords are separated.

How do I get an account?

Students, faculty, and staff create accounts for themselves using an account creation web page. Note that students, faculty, and staff must appear in the Rutgers Online Directory in order to make their own account. (For historical reasons, some documentation refers to the Online Directory as the "white pages".)

The rest of this page will talk about accounts for students, faculty, staff. that. For guest accounts, please see the guest account policy and procedures . For deparmental accounts, please see the departmental account policy and procedures .

I'm a new student or faculty member. Does that matter?

Unfortunately it does. In order to create an account, we have to be able to verify that you're really a student or faculty/staff member. We do this by checking data from the Rutgers Online Directory. In order to appear in this, you must be a properly registered student or a faculty/staff member in the payroll database. Students often don't appear because of problems with their registration. Faculty/staff may not appear because payroll processing has been delayed for some reason. You might want to look yourself up in the Rutgers Online Directory now.

It is possible for students to ask for their data not to be shown in the Directory. If you have done that, you won't show up, but you can still create an account. (You actually have an entry. It's just marked as private.) New students' data will be marked as private for the first few weeks of the semester, or until they have run an application to choose what data is made visible. In that case, you won't show in the Online Directory, but you can still create an account. You'll just have to try it. The support staff (hours are posted) at your campus help desk and in the student public labs can see the information even if it is not public. So if you have problems, they can see whether you're actually in our data or not.

What do I need to do before I create the account?

Before creating an account, take a look at the Rutgers Acceptable Use Policy. All your usage of the computer must be in accordance with that policy.

When you create an account, you'll be asked for your name, birth date, and social security number. These are used to verify who you are. Then you'll be asked to choose a username and a password. You may find it easier if you think about what username and password you want beforehand. The instructions (which we'll point you to below) include information on the valid usernames and passwords.

OK, how do I create the account?

If you are a student, we urge you to come to one of the public student labs, and create your account there. While it's possible to create an account from a computer at home or in your dorm, a lot of things can go wrong. It's better to do it where there are staff who can help you. Written instructions are available at the labs.

To create an account for yourself, go to the web page for your system.

• Camden students: clam
• Camden faculty and staff: crab
• Newark students: pegasus
• Newark faculty and staff: andromeda
• New Brunswick students: eden
• New Brunswick faculty and staff: rci

The web pages should generally be self-explanatory. However you may find it useful to look at the following pages. Note that they are written for New Brunswick users. If you are from Camden or Newark, you'll want to use clam or crab, andromeda or pegasus, where the instructions say eden or rci.

• Choosing a username you can live with
• Choosing a password you can remember

Please ignore other sections of the documentation, about connecting to the system and using makeclass. This procedure has been replaced by the new web pages.

What if it doesn't work?

There are a number of reasons why you might find it impossible to create an account. Your data may not be in our copy of the Online Directory yet. We may have gotten your birthdate wrong. There may be a typo in your social security number. Or you may be doing something wrong. The staff at your campus help desk or in the public student labs are quite experienced in helping with account creation problems. They have special tools to check your data.

When will my account go away?

Accounts will be closed automatically after you graduate or terminate employment.

• For students leaving the University, accounts are closed the next October or March, whichever comes first.
• For faculty and staff, accounts are closed the next May. [This doesn't document the procedures for retiring after 20 years, as those procedures aren't fixed yet.]
• Guests are revalidated every year, in April. The procedure for this is listed in the guest account policy and procedures.
• Departmental accounts are revalidated every year, in April. The procedure for this is listed in the departmental account policy and procedures.

If it is urgent to close an account before the normal account reviews listed above, please contact your campus help desk and describe the circumstances.

For information on alumni accounts see this.

What rules and policies govern use of these accounts?

The basic document governing all computer use at Rutgers is the Rutgers Acceptable Use Policy. This, together with policies involving issues such as email, is listed in the computing policies page.

Are there other kinds of accounts?

Faculty and staff can get an account on the centralized administrative system called Rutadmin or for the Oracle Data Warehousing project. To set up an account there follow the procedures at Administrative Computing Services (ACS) accounts .

Student Organization accounts are available for the respective student organizations at for Camden, for New Brunswick, and for Newark.

Other groups, departments, or colleges that systems where they control who may have an account. Some examples include: Business Service accounts on Newark or Cook campus; Novell accounts on the different campuses; special purpose accounts for projects like webct; and colleges/departments like business school, aesop, agriculture, NB-engineering or DCS.

Last changed August 13, 2001 by hedrick@nbcs.rutgers.edu