Navigation

You are here: Home / Information Technology / Self Help / Accounts and Passwords / User Accounts

User Accounts

Information on how to identify your various user accounts at Penn State

Which Password is Which?

Are you confused about which user identification (userid) and password combination does what? The following are the three most common accounts you use.

Penn State Access Account

Your Penn State Access Account is used for a variety of access rights. Many of you refer to your Penn State Access Account as your "Eudora" account, because it is your most common use of these credentials. In reality, however, Eudora does not use authentication credentials, it simply passes these credentials to the mail server you identify in the Eudora setup. At University Park, we use the mail servers administered by Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET). We use either email.psu.edu or mail.psu.edu for incoming mail, and smtp.psu.edu for outgoing mail. You are really using your Penn State Access account to log on to the ITS POP server, not to Eudora.

Another common use for your Access account is to access restricted Penn State web sites. Several Human Resources sites, including the Employee Self-Service Information Center (ESSIC) , are restricted to Penn State users. To access these sites, you must provide your Penn State Access Account credentials.

ASET creates and maintains your Penn State Access Account information. They assign a default password when the account is established. If you ever forget your password, you will need to contact one of the ITS Help Desk locations, or the Accounts Office, to have it reset.

For additional information about your Penn State Access Account, please visit the Access Account Password Management website.

AIS Account

Many of you have access to the University mainframe via your Administrative Information Services (AIS) account. This system uses two-factor authentication, so in addition to your AIS userid and password, you also must have a SecurID token to access the mainframe screens.

AIS uses the same userid as your Penn State Access Account, but will assign a different password. AIS sets your password to expire every 90 days. If you forget your password, or if your account is locked out after a succession of bad attempts, you must contact AIS to correct the problem. You can call the AIS Support Center at 814-863-2276.