If you are new to the Engineering Computer Network, or a TA or Professor for a course, this information might be helpful. Currently, when students are registered at Purdue, they get a computer account generated at ITaP (Information Technology at Purdue). ECN accounts are manually generated using the same login, but usually the password information is initially different. However, the account information is all updated/stored via the same ACmaint (Account Maintenence) database. So, if you change your ITaP password, it resets the ECN accounts' password, as well as the ITaP accounts' password, to be the same password.

There are a couple of web page locations, where you can change your password. One is the ECN web page:
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECN/password/

Students may also be familiar with changing their password inside SSINFO. Their Purdue Career Account password may be changed from the following web page:
http://www.purdue.edu/careeraccount

This will update their ECN password at the same time.
You can also login to a Unix machine and type: passwd
So, if you have someone in your class, or a friend that can't login to ECN, have them try changing their password.

Another point of information is that since accounts are generated manually, the expiration date set on the account is a guess. If you take longer than X years to graduate, you may get a message that your account is EXPIRED when you try to login to a PC. (Unix machines don't automatically enforce expiration dates, as far as preventing login sessions.)

The solution is to notify your Site Specialist via the login you normally use to report computer problems. That would be one of these logins:

Aeronautics & Astronautics Engineering -> aaesite@ecn.purdue.edu
Agricultural & Biological Engineering -> abesite@ecn.purdue.edu
Biomedical Engineering ->bmesite@ecn.purdue.edu
Civil Engineering ->cesite@ecn.purdue.edu
Chemical Engineering -> cheq@ecn.purdue.edu
Electrical & Computer Engineering -> esite@ecn.purdue.edu
Freshman Engineering ->fresite@ecn.purdue.edu
Industrial Engineering ->iesite@ecn.purdue.edu
Mechanical Engineering-> mesite@ecn.purdue.edu
Materials Science Engineering ->msesite@ecn.purdue.edu
Nuclear Engineering ->nesite@ecn.purdue.edu

Also provide your expected graduation date.

If you feel like you have been at Purdue forever, you can do a preemptive check that the date on your account is correct, by using the finger command on a Unix machine.

Example (substitute your login for "boo"):

  finger boo
  Login name: boo               In real life: Made Up Scary Person
  Office: ,                     Home phone: 
  Directory: /home/scary/a/boo  Shell: /bin/csh
  Affiliations: ecn             Uid: 99999
  Expires: December 31, 2004    Login group: other (1)
  ----------------------------

Semester long guest accounts, given to you because you are taking classes, are not in the same boat. You may or may not be able to get the account expiration date extended by a request. If you are taking another class and will need that same account, your wish is more likely to be granted.