Accounts Overview
Table of Contents
Business accounts
Accounts for faculty and staff are created by a system administrator by hand. The typical Username is composed of the person's first name, a period, then their last name. Thus, Roger Graham's Username is Roger.Graham. As of Summer 2008, students will no longer be given College of Buisness accounts.
Logging onto the College of Business network
When you turn on a computer in Bexell Hall, you are asked to fill out three fields in the opening dialog box which lets you log onto the College of Business network: Username, Password, and "Log on to" fields.
- Username field: Enter your Username, such as Stu123 or Grahamr, as discussed above.
- Password field: The initial password for students is their 9-digit university number. Since faculty and staff accounts are created by hand, they receive their initial password directly from the system administrator who creates the account. Either way, you should change your password to a more secure combination of letters and numbers as described in the Changing your password section below.
- "Log on to" field: Enter BUS so your Username/password combination is validated by the College of Business network.
Once you have logged onto the college's network for a Windows computing session, you can open your Exchange email box or use the college's file servers without needing to re-enter your Username/password combination. However, if you want to open your ONID mailbox or store files on an ONID file server, then you will need to enter your ONID Username/password combination to complete those actions.
What to do if you cannot log in with your Username/password combination
If you cannot log on to the college network:
- Begin by making sure you entered your Username/password combination correctly. Also check to make sure you set the "Log on to" field to BUS.
- Students should check with a Lab Assistant in the basement computer lab to make sure they are using the correct Username.
- If all else fails, go to Bexell 116 with a photo ID, and the Help Desk staff will reset your password to a new value. Note: system administrators have no way to find out the password for a Username, so they must create a brand new password to replace the unknown existing password.
Changing your Password
Choosing a good password protects your account from crackers and other forms of malicious harm. You should choose a good password and safeguard it from discovery. Your initial password is not a good long-term choice, so you should change your password the first time you log on to the college's network.
We recommend reading this Choosing a Good Password page written by the folks in the University of Chicago network services area.
How to change your password
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete
- Click "Change Password..."
- Enter your old password and your new password (two times)
- press "Ok"
This one-step procedure will reset your password on all the college's file servers and on the college's Exchange email server.
College of Business versus ONID (OSU Network ID) accounts
Many parts of the world (such as the United States Electoral College) are based on a historical legacy, and if people could create a brand new system from scratch, life would be simpler. This statement is definitely true for how computing services have evolved on campus.
Oregon State University has a long tradition of strong colleges with a decentralized organizational structure. So as personal computing made its way onto campus, many colleges set up computer labs, local area networks, email systems, and file servers. After these college-level systems were established, Central Computing Services established ONID accounts for all students, faculty, and staff. This link will take you to the university's ONID Home Page which explains more about your ONID file storage, email, and other services.
Today, many colleges on campus offer students, faculty and staff with accounts, mailboxes and file storage areas. This duplication means you must choose which services to use, and you must take steps to avoid dead-letter boxes and other unwanted repercussions from these overlapping services. It also means you have at least two (and possibly five or six) different Username/password combinations to remember, and each combination lets you use a different set of college or university services. System administrators are working behind the scenes to merge these systems, but lots of hard work must be done to make this happen.
Perhaps the most important choice for you to make is which email account to use as your primary email account. You can learn more about how to make this choice on our Email page. | 
