Password FAQs
- your password must be at least ten characters long, preferably longer
- your password must include characters from 3 of the following character types:
- upper case characters
- lower case characters
- numbers from 0 to 9
- any of the special characters ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * _ - + = ’ \ ( ) { } [ ] ; ” , . ? /
- you must not use any special characters other than those shown above, especially not < or > as these are coding characters and can prevent your account from working properly
Your IT account will automatically unlock after 15 minutes.
Your mobile devices may lock your IT account if you don’t turn off internet connections (Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G) on all devices connected to the university network before starting the password change process.
The easiest way to do this is to "Forget Network" for WiFi and turn off Mobile Data on all your device(s).
You must update all your devices with your new password in Account Settings on each device before you reconnect to WiFi or 3G or 4G on them, or this lockout will happen again.
You also need to manually update your new password in Skype for Business and also for Eduroam or UoE_Guest if you use University WiFi on your personal devices.
For more information please see how to Stop Account Locking
There are two occasions when you may see this error message:
1. You will get the "Access Denied" error message if you enter your university email wrongly on the first Change Password Reset page.
Click the “Self-Service Password Reset” link to start again.
2. This error message is also shown during the process to reset your forgotten password:
You will get the error message “Access Temporarily Denied” if you have entered incorrect answers to your security questions more than 5 times in a row. Wait 15 minutes and then try again.
You will get the error message “Access Denied” after 3 temporary lockouts. If you know your existing password you can re-Register your security question answers, and then you can reset your forgotten password.
If you don’t know your existing password you will need to contact SID to unlock the Forgotten Password function for you.
If you have completed multi-factor authentication setup: you should manage your account using self service password reset.
If you have not yet completed multi-factor authentication setup, or setup self-service password reset:
If you can’t remember enough of your answers to the security questions to enable you to reset your password, you can see different questions by clicking on the Cancel button on the questions screen to start the Change password process again.
If you still can't answer enough of the security questions, then please call SID.
Yes you can!
If you have setup multi-factor authentication and self service password reset, you can reset your password and review your security settings through the My Account portal.
If you have not setup self-service password reset yet:
You can either navigate in a browser to the Change Password page at
https://as.exeter.ac.uk/it/account/changepassword/
or on your mobile device you can go straight to the “Save answers to security questions” function at
https://registerpasswordreset.exeter.ac.uk/
or the “Change password” Reset function at
https://passwordreset.exeter.ac.uk/
But be aware of the need to disconnect any mobile devices from Wi-Fi or 3G first - see related FAQs about IT account locking and Staff laptops
Yes you can!
If you have setup multi-factor authentication and self service password reset, you can reset your password and review your security settings through the My Account portal.
If you have not setup self-service password reset yet:
You can now use the Change Password page to change or reset your password 24/7 instead of only being able to call SID when the desk is open.
The information below only applies to people who have not yet set up self-service password reset.
Authentication dialogue box for accessing FIM Portal remotely via Internet Explorer
This can be a problem when you try to access the "Save answers to security questions" function remotely and you get asked to authenticate your details.
Most browsers (Internet Explorer, GoogleChrome, Firefox etc) will ask for your "User name".
Instead, you need to enter your full university email address where it says “Username”, plus your existing University password.
If you have enabled self-service password reset:
- Connect to the VPN (or ensure you are connected to the University network whilst on campus).
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete on your keyboard and then select Change a password.
- Choose your new password.
- You can then disconnect from the VPN.
If not:
Yes you can, but please see the Change Your Password Help Guide for more details and a worked example.
You can change your IT account password remotely, and access University systems with your new password, but the laptop local login password will stay as your old password until you physically reconnect the laptop to the university network when next back on campus, when it will then be updated automatically.
If you have setup self-service password reset: this can be managed in your My Account portal. Instead of security questions, self-service password reset lets you validate your identity using something you own.
If you have not:
No they can’t, otherwise all staff and students would need to re-Register their answers at once.
The questions that have been included in the password reset process have been carefully chosen so that they can be answered by both students and staff from the UK and abroad.
We have tried to offer a sufficient number of questions so that people have choice in what they answer and the questions selected have a large number of possible answers. We have also tried to avoid questions that are used for security purposes by financial institutions.
If you feel that you do not want to answer the questions truthfully, this is not an issue. As long as you remember the answers you provided to the questions the password reset process will still work correctl
The information below only applies to people who have not yet had self-service password reset enabled.
Answering at least 6 questions provides you with a greater choice of questions to answer when you come to resetting your password.
You can actually store answers to all 10 questions if you wish in the Save answers to security questions function.
If you can’t remember the answers to the 3 questions randomly shown, you can restart the reset process to see different questions by clicking "Cancel" on the Reset screen.
If you can't remember any of your answers at all, you can save new answers in the Save answers to security questions function (as long as you know your current password) and then return to Change password to reset it.
If you can't remember any of your answers and you can't remember your current password you will need to contact SID.
Higher Education institutions are coming under cyber attack much more frequently, from (h)activists, criminals, and data thieves.
It is frightening how quickly hackers can break simple passwords now by using sophisticated tools - for example, a simple 5 character lowercase password can be broken in minutes.
In response, the Information Security Steering Group has recommended that the university tightens up its password security policy to improve security and meet our external audit guidelines.
We may from time to time need to increase the minimum password criteria even further - see the related FAQ.