Purdue Mathematics IT

For security reasons the Department of Mathematics does not allow users from outside the purdue.edu domain to log into our change password web page.

If you are away from the purdue.edu domain and need to change your password you can us the SSH method as describe below. This only works if you know your math password and want to change it. If you have forgotten your password or it has been reset then this method will not work.

1. SSH into bers.math.purdue.edu.

   • Mac OS and Linux have SSH clients in the OS. See man ssh

   • For MS Window OS you can download a simple SSH program called PuTTY which can be downloaded from http://www.putty.org. PuTTY does not require any installation, just double click on the downloaded .exe file to run.

     • Set Connection Type is set to SSH.
     • Enter bers.math.purdue.edu in Host Name field.
     • Click on Open button.
     • At this point a window will pop up connecting you to UNIX computer bers.math.purdue.edu. If a PuTTY Security Alert window pops up then click Yes.

2. Login with your math username and password.

3. At UNIX command prompt enter the command passwd.

4. You will be prompted to enter your current password and then prompted to enter your new password twice.

   • Your new password should be at least 8 characters and contain the following:

     • at least 1 upper case character.
     • at least 1 special character.
     • at least 1 number.

5. The program will let you know if the new password was accepted. You can always CTRL-C out of the passwd program and execute again if you get into problems.

6. Once you have change your password you can type the command logout to exit the session.

In order to connect a laptop to Mathematics computer network, you will need to provide your computer’s MAC address.

The MAC address look like xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx where x is a hexidecimal character. The method for retrieving a computer’s MAC address varies for different operating systems:

• Windows.
  • From the Start Menu, choose the “Run…” option.
  • Run the “cmd.exe” program.
  • Once the DOS box has appeared, type “ipconfig /all” into it.
  • The output from the ipconfig command lists the MAC address for each of the network interfaces on your computer. If your computer can connect to a wireless network, you have two MAC addresses. You need to find the non-wireless address.
• Mac OSX
  • Click on the Apple () in the top left corner of your screen.
  • Click the “About this Mac” option.
  • Click the “More Info” button.
  • Click on the top level “Network” link.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the resulting information, until you see the MAC address entry.
  • It will look something like this:
  • 
• Linux
  • Run the command: ifconfig -a
• Solaris
  • Run the command: arp computer_name (or arp `uname -n`)

To connect to your Math Account from a computer that is connected to the internet on campus:

From a PC running Windows:

1. Right click the Start menu.

2. Click Explore.

3. On the Tools menu, click Map Network Drive.

4. In Drive, select a drive letter.

5. In Folder, type in the string

\\smbhost.math.purdue.edu\yourloginid

where “yourloginid” is your Math login id.

6. When prompted, enter your Math Account login and password

If you are running Windows XP/2000/NT, you may need to use the option on the Map Network Drive window Connect using different user name and enter your Math Account login and password. With Windows 98, your local User name must match your Math Account login.

Visit ITaP’s website for detailed instructions to setup a VPN connection in Windows.

http://www.itap.purdue.edu/connections/vpn/

You need to install an SSH client.

Purdue’s Engineering Computer Network has SSH clients available for Purdue faculty, staff, and students. Below is a link to the ECN software download page.

https://engineering.purdue.edu/PULS/pc_software/ssh_clients

We recommend SSH Client 3.x (SSHWinClient). Once the SSH client is installed, create a connection to any of the math servers.

Click here for more detailed instructions to setup a connection in Windows XP.