Subject: Granting UserIDS/E-mail accounts? How are you doing it?

From: [email-masked] (Mark Thacker...CWIS Coordinator)
Date: 13 Jul 1994 15:20:06 GMT

I am the manager of the Campus Wide Information System here at the
University of North Texas.  As such, some portions of student E-mail
access seem to be my responsibility.  I am interested in your combined
experiences in granting thousands of E-mail/USERIDs to students,
faculty and staff.  Since we are about to embark on a universal
access/electronic application process here at UNT, any input you could
provide could save us quite a bit of time.  The following questions
cover our primary areas of concern:

1. What procedures do students, faculty and staff go through to get an
Internet mail capable E-mail/User ID? (assuming an incoming freshman
who has never had access to anything like this before)

2. Is the above procedure available to students, faculty and staff that
might be only on-campus on the weekends or after-hours?  That is, can
it be access off-campus and if so, through what means (generic
anonymous application process available via modem/VT-100 based
sessions?)

3. What are the qualifications for being able to get a UserID?  (full
time students only, academic status?)

4. Is there a comprehensive database of all eligble people that you
check against when someone applies for an account?  Does the database
cover people that might be gone for the summer, continuing students,
transitional students, part-time student employees and those on
academic probation?

5. Is there any fee associated with using such accounts?  If so, how is
collection of these fees handled and what steps are taken if accounts
are not payed? (including printing fees or generally accessed student
computer use fees.  i.e. how is this system payed for?)

6. Are only UNIX, VAX or IBM-class mainframe accounts available?  What
about Novell or AppleShare based accounts?

7. What remote access methods are available?  (Generic VT-100 or
SLIP/PPP/other LAN based protocal)

8. What software is provided and is it site licesed if there are
SLIP/PPP/LAN protocal based access provided?

9. What method do you have of ensuring that the person filling out an
electronic form for a UserID (I assume that this is the method you use)
is indeed who they say they are?  What athentication scheme is used?
(i.e. checking into a computer lab sufficient enough?)

10. Besides the possible central database that you check against to
ensure that they are a student, are the active E-mail accounts kept in
an X.500 database?  A CSO (Gopher) database or where?

Thanks again greatly for your assistance in this matter.

=========================================
Mark Thacker        [email-masked]
CWIS Coordinator    [email-masked]
P.O.Box 13495       817-565-2324
Denton, TX 76203
=========================================

---

From: [email-masked] (Noel Hunter)
Date: 13 Jul 1994 21:35:12 GMT

Mark Thacker...CWIS Coordinator ([email-masked]) wrote:

: 1. What procedures do students, faculty and staff go through to get an
: Internet mail capable E-mail/User ID? (assuming an incoming freshman
: who has never had access to anything like this before)

We found it easiest to create logins for everyone, rather than on the 
fly.  Students pick up logins at out help desk.  The logins are printed 
on carbon forms so that the password is concealed until the form is opened.

: 2. Is the above procedure available to students, faculty and staff that
: might be only on-campus on the weekends or after-hours?  That is, can
: it be access off-campus and if so, through what means (generic
: anonymous application process available via modem/VT-100 based
: sessions?)

We require them to come in and present an ID, then sign a user agreement.
 
: 3. What are the qualifications for being able to get a UserID?  (full
: time students only, academic status?)

Anyone enrolled.

: 4. Is there a comprehensive database of all eligble people that you
: check against when someone applies for an account?  Does the database
: cover people that might be gone for the summer, continuing students,
: transitional students, part-time student employees and those on
: academic probation?

We access the student database to verify enrollment.  We enter the logins 
into the database, and generate automatic delete requests when students 
leave.

: 5. Is there any fee associated with using such accounts?  If so, how is
: collection of these fees handled and what steps are taken if accounts
: are not payed? (including printing fees or generally accessed student
: computer use fees.  i.e. how is this system payed for?)

No fee.

: 6. Are only UNIX, VAX or IBM-class mainframe accounts available?  What
: about Novell or AppleShare based accounts?

We use PCNFS and Cayman GatorBoxes to access the Unix password files.

: 7. What remote access methods are available?  (Generic VT-100 or
: SLIP/PPP/other LAN based protocal)

All of the above.

: 8. What software is provided and is it site licesed if there are
: SLIP/PPP/LAN protocal based access provided?

We use Sassafras Keyserver, which provides IP based license control for
Mac and Windows.

: 9. What method do you have of ensuring that the person filling out an
: electronic form for a UserID (I assume that this is the method you use)
: is indeed who they say they are?  What athentication scheme is used?
: (i.e. checking into a computer lab sufficient enough?)

Photo ID or registration slip is required.

: 10. Besides the possible central database that you check against to
: ensure that they are a student, are the active E-mail accounts kept in
: an X.500 database?  A CSO (Gopher) database or where?

We use a CSO database.

--
* Noel Hunter,  Academic Systems Administrator,    Wake Forest University *
* email: [email-masked]                            http://www.wfu.edu/~noel *