At 11:14 Am 5/17/2000 -0400, Marcia Hamm Groover wrote:

>If you are issuing the same password and asking the PI to change it
>immediately, you may be running into some challenge particularly if you
want to
>stick with an algorithm.
>
>What I have experienced in adding or reinitializing current PINs, is that
>Fastlane will not allow you to use the same password unless the individual's
>password  has been changed 3 times since its last use.  Confusing, I know!
 In
>other words if your password is FASTLANE1, you can't use it again until you
>have gone through FASTLANE2 and FASTLANE3.  Then you can go back to
FASTLANE1.

That's a pertinent point.  What I think you're saying is that if I set up a
PI with <passwordA> and he forgets it or forgets the one he changed to, I
will probably then need to reinitialize him with something other than
<passwordA>.  So it appears we will need to keep track of what passwords we
initialized (or reinitialized).

>We want to maintain our algorithm.  When I add a user or reinitialize, I
>basically provide them with two passwords; one for their initial sign on into
>the system after the addition or change and the second and "primary" one for
>them to change to which maintains the integrity of our algorithim.

I don't see any need for an algorithm at our university, but each
institution has to do what's best for them.

>I am not doing global changes, so I can't address that at this time.

If you are doing global changes, you may be able to use Excel's data fill
function which allows you to enter data in a cell and then generate any
number of increments by dragging.

Joe Titone
Dept. of Contracts and Grants
Univ. of Southern California
xxxxxx@mizar.usc.edu
213 740-6069

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