Confusion over what passphrase you need to use and when

KnightVision and Webmail

Each Calvin faculty, staff, and student has a KnightVision account. To access KnightVision you use your username and KnightVision passphrase. Those who also have a Webmail account use their username and KnightVision passphrase to login to Webmail. To change your KnightVision passphrase, login to KnightVision and click the Change KV passphrase link in the Tools panel on the left.

CalvinWireless

If you connect to CalvinWireless, you connect using your username and KnightVision passphrase. When you change your passphrase for KnightVision you need to open your CalvinWireless connection and change the old passphrase to the new one.

Novell

Each Calvin faculty, staff, and student has a Novell account. Your Novell account has a different passphrase. To change your Novell passphrase, login to KnightVision and click the Change Novell passphrase link in the Tools panel on the left.

GroupWise

Most Calvin faculty and staff and a few Calvin students have GroupWise accounts. GroupWise has its own passphrase. To change your GroupWise passphrase login to GroupWise and select Tools > Options > Security. If you are using WebAccess you can change your GroupWise passphrase by selecting Options > Passwords.

General passphrase information

Passpharases and passwords are the key to ensuring the security and confidentiality of information that is stored in Novell, KnightVision, and any other passphrase-protected system across campus. We have you set a secret question and answer so that when you need to reset your password/ passphrase you can do it yourself without help from CIT.

It is your responsibility, as a user of Calvin computer technology, to make sure that all your account passphrases/ passwords are as secure as possible. That includes creating a secure secret question with an answer that only you know the answer to. If you do not know the answer to your secret question please login go to http://kv.calvin.edu and click on Update secret Q&A in the Tools panel on the left. The answer to your secret question is not case sensitive and ignores any punctuation that is used.

At Calvin, your Novell account requires a 15 or longer character passphrase. KnightVision/Webmail and GroupWise will accept shorter passwords however CIT recommends you also use a passphrase for these systems. Using different passphrases for each system provides additional security.

If at any time you think your passphrase has been compromised you should change it immediately and notify the CIT HelpDesk at x6-8555. For additional information, please read Microsoft's article on Strong passwords: How to create and use them.