Unlock Student Accounts and More ...

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Problems with your Student Account? Read On ...

Here's some facts and suggested cures for a number of common IT problems.

Locked student accounts: the facts and the cure

The university provides you with a username (your student number) and you set a password using the student portal when you arrive. If you log on to something and a pop up window appears asking you for username and password, you need to provide the domain name 'academic' for these. Here's a link to more about logging in, and below are some facts about your student account:

Why your account locks

Your student account will lock itself if you (or someone else) tries to log on, but uses the wrong password three times. It locks to protect you, your work, and the university's systems.

Your account unlocks automatically

After an hour it will unlock itself automatically. So if you've locked it, perhaps just check your password and wait an hour.

Unlock it yourself using the student portal

The Student Portal's a web site - if your student account is locked, go to the student portal - you'll have to provide the answer to a personal question and you'll then be able to unlock your account, day or night.

Changing your password: what works and what doesn't

Passwords need to be 'Something that's not in a dictionary'. The University system accepts passwords which:

• Are between 7 and 12 characters long
• Contain three out of the following four: upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, non-alphanumeric characters.
• Are not 'Common default' passwords such as 'abc-123'

In practice, a password of the pattern abc-123 satisfies those conditions

Passwords that will work

One option is to stick to a pattern that works. The password 'tes-486' is ok - it has the pattern 'abc-123' and the pattern can make it easier to remember. It contains letters, numbers and a symbol (the dash).

Passwords that won't work

• A word from a dictionary - these are weak and easily guessed. The system won't accept them.
• The name of a pet, a friend - again, easily guessed. Again, the system won't accept them.

PHd Students: Account Creation

Take the following steps:

• Go to https://studentportal.bathspa.ac.uk/Home/
• Select 'Sign in'
• Select 'First time visitor? Create an account by clicking here'
• From here you will be able to create an account.

Wireless Networks

You'll see three wireless networks . When logging on from your laptop, choose 'Easynet'. Here's more info on logging on to wireless networks at Bath Spa University.

Printing Issues

You have a print account, at the start of the academic year you're allocated a balance of £2.50. You can use this balance to print from an open access machine - each room has an A4 printer and certain ones have a colour printer.

Print Charges

Your printing account will be charged at £0.05 for a black on white print, and £0.35 for a colour print.

Adding cash to your print account

At any time, you can credit your print account using the 'Moneyloader' situated in NP LY 119 in Newton Park Library Open Access Rooms.

Pick the right printer

When you print, you'll see a choice of printers. If in doubt as to which to use, look for information on notices near the room's printer. If you don't need colour, don't pick a colour printer as they cost you more per page.

Your email account: Setting it up

You're likely to be using BSU Live (Hosted by Microsoft). Use this via any web browser. Before you can receive University email you'll need to set up your account as follows (Source: the computing department's wiki)

Here's more info on the BSU Live student email.

Where to save your work

Your 'My documents' folder is set to be stored on the Bath Spa University network - which allows you 50 megabytes of secure storage space. If you store work on USB sticks, it's a very good idea to back it up. Here's more on looking after your work. If you've worked on a document that's valuable to you, send a copy to yourself by email - that way your email account will contain a backup ...

USB sticks

They're small, portable, robust, brilliant. When they do go bad, they can go very bad, instantly. When you save work you value to a USB stick, put a 'Plan b' in place.

USB stick starting points

Various of the open access computers are now networked 'Thin clients'. You can use your usb stick with these, but they're unable to display its name. Instead, they're likely to display your USB stick as a network drive with the drive letter 'a'. Just select that when saving/opening files and you'll see your work.

USB stick: removing them

Computers like to be told when a storage device is being removed, this allows the computer to tidy things up. When you remove a memory stick from a Windows pc, use the small green USB removal tool at bottom right of the screen, select this and then 'Safely remove USB storage device' and wait for the message that it's ok to remove the thing. With OS X, there'll be an image of the USB stick on the desktop, drag it to the trash (which reassuringly turns into an 'Eject' button ...)

Here's more on USB sticks.

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