CIS News: July 2005

NetIDs are going away

For several years, members of the Brown community have used one of two IDs in order to login to centralized computing services and systems: their NetID or their AuthID. This situation has proven confusing and we would now like to standardize around one ID called the Brown Username.

On July 26th, you will no longer use your NetID (typically Firstname_Lastname) to access Brown's password protected computing resources. In places that previously required you to use your NetID, you will use your Brown Username (formerly AuthID). After July 26th, only your Brown Username (AuthID) will allow you to access password protected computing resources such as email, cluster computers, reverse proxy, central printing, wireless, WebCT, and web applications like WebGrades and WebLedgers.

* Your email address will remain the same - generally firstname_lastname@brown.edu. You will use your Brown Username (AuthID) to login to access your email, but your address will not change.

The format of the NetID (which has no length restriction and allows for special characters such as hyphens) cannot be used with many of the Brown computing systems, so the format of the Brown Username will follow the convention of the AuthID - usually your first initial followed by the first seven characters of your last name (e.g. Josiah Carberry would be jcarberr). If your last name doesn't have seven characters, your Username will be shorter and if your last name is a common name, your Username may include your middle initial or a number.

Simply put, after July 26th, all Brown students, faculty, and staff will use only their AuthIDs to access all Brown computing systems and services and the term “AuthID” will be replaced by “Username.” You can look up your Username/AuthID by going to myAccount.

Please email questions and concerns to Stephanie Birdsall at cis@brown.edu.