Your passwords in the CS Lab

You should change passwords often, always picking secure passwords. Passwords should be at least 8 symbols long, preferably 12 symbols, with a mixture of lowercase, uppercase and non-alphabetic characters. A good technique is to take a short phrase and run the characters together. For example: Ilove2eatEggs. Passwords that are formed from words are easy to type and difficult for others to pick off while you are typing them.

Changing Your Password

To change your password you must be logged into the CS server.

To change your password (prior to its expiration) you need to be logged into the the CS server.

1. • From Windows, using putty or a similar tool start a secure shell (ssh) session to cs.bemidjistate.edu.
   • From Linux, open a terminal window (CTRL-ALT-T usually does it). Then type: ssh cs.bemidjistate.edu. Note that you may have to type ssh user@cs.bemidjistate.edu, where user is your username in the CS Lab.
2. Use your old password to log in to cs. Note that as you type your password, no characters are displayed on the screen. If your password has expired, you will be forced to change your password. If that does not happen, you need to continue with the next step.
3. At a Linux prompt type yppasswd. You will be prompted for your current password and then for a new password.
4. After you have typed it, press enter and then type it a second time and press enter again. Watch the message carefully to ensure that you were successful in changing your password. You have to pick good passwords or they will be rejected. So pay attention to what you are doing.

Note that you will have changed all of the passwords that are associated with your use of Linux in the CS Lab:  your Linux password and your password to the CS Server.  Your password for the Windows side will remain unchanged.

Type logout to logout from the server.