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Disabled WAM/Glue Accounts

Contents

Why are WAM/Glue accounts disabled?
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Your WAM or Glue account can be disabled for two main reasons: disciplinary and non-disciplinary:

Disciplinary Disablement

You are suspected of having violated University or WAM acceptable computing usage guidelines.

Beyond the following notes, this document does not deal with disciplinary disablements. If your account has been disabled for disciplinary reasons, you will be unable to log in and will see one of the following messages. In the case of a Glue account, the message will depend on how you try to log in. (Important: For glue accounts, the message you see is the same for both disciplinary and non-disciplinary disablements.)

Non-Disciplinary ("not-here") Disablement

You will receive an e-mail (see below) explaining which accounts will be disabled and your University ID no longer appears in the campus Directory. The first warning message will appear in your inbox once your Directory ID has been dropped. Three weeks after this first e-mail you will receive a reminder e-mail. Finally one week after the second e-mail comes to you the account(s) will be disabled.

Note: Between initial disabling and final deletion, accounts may be re-enabled for a variety of reasons.

WARNING: Official advance notice of disablement
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Your <ACCOUNTS> account(s) will be disabled (made unavailable for use) starting <DATE>, 
because it appears that you are no longer actively affiliated with the University of 
Maryland, College Park. We will make a final determination based on a check of updated 
campus information just before the accounts are disabled.

Accounts that remain disabled will be deleted on <DATE>.

To retain your account(s), you must be a current student, faculty/staff member, or 
university affiliate. If you fall into one of these categories, please contact 
your department about your status.

Otherwise, if you need to retain any files from your accounts, please copy them 
to another system prior to your account being disabled. The following URLs may 
be of assistance:

Mail@umd accounts --
Transferring files to and from your account: www.helpdesk.umd.edu/documents/4/4043/

WAM/Glue accounts --
General info on downloading files:  www.helpdesk.umd.edu/systems/wam/connectivity/ftp/

Extended e-mail forwarding is available to university graduates. Visit  
www.helpdesk.umd.edu/systems/mailatumd/all/4697/ for more details.

Please contact the OIT Help Desk if you have questions or need further assistance. 

How can you tell if an account has been disabled?
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There are a variety of ways to determine if an account has been disabled:

1. if, when you attempt to log in, you see (depending on whether it is a WAM or Glue account) one of the messages shown below, and are then forcibly logged out. However, since many ssh programs close the window immediately after logout, this message may not be visible long enough to see clearly.
2. if someone else with a WAM account uses the finger command to get information about your account and finds that the login shell is

   /local/lib/logins/norecord	(non-disciplinary)
   /local/lib/logins/disabled	(disciplinary)

3. if certain other symptoms arise (see What does and doesn't work, below).

Official disabled notification displayed at login
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If your account has been disabled, you may see a message something like the following. We say "may" because many ssh programs close the window so quickly after you log out that the message may not be visible long enough to see it clearly

WAM Accounts

Your account has been disabled because it appears that you are no longer
actively affiliated with the University of Maryland, College Park. We will
make a final determination based on a check of updated campus information
just before the account is deleted.

To retain your account, you must be a current student, faculty/staff member,
or university affiliate. If you fall into one of these categories, please
contact your department about your status.

Please contact the OIT Help Desk at 301.405.1400 (students) or 301.405.1500
(faculty/staff) if you have questions or need further assistance. 

Glue Accounts
(depends on how you try to log in)

What does and doesn't work on a disabled account?
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1. What will work:
   • Automatic e-mail forwarding using a .forward file
   • Receipt of e-mail (unless the growing inbox causes the account to go over its disk quota (100 megabytes), in which case any subsequent e-mail that arrives will be "bounced" (returned to the sender).
2. What won't work
   • Logging into the account via ssh or slogin
   • Accessing e-mail via POP or IMAP client programs
   • Accessing web-page material (you get a403 Forbidden error message if you try)
   • Accessing the account's files via AFS from WAM or Glue or other system.
   • Making use of WAM-id-authenticated resources such as
     • PPP service

Do you lose anything when your account is disabled?
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The answer is "No," except for being unable to access your files. The files will remain safe. The only time you'll lose files is if you both

• fail to get the account re-instated within eight weeks of when it was disabled and
• fail to get the account temporarily re-enabled and move your files/e-mail to another system.

Also, if your incoming mail pushes your account over its disk quota, you'll lose all the mail that arrives from then on, and the senders of that mail will have their messages bounced back to them.

How can you get an account re-enabled?
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Call the OIT Help Desk for information about getting your account temporary re-enabled:

1. temporary re-enabling -- This applies to accounts which no longer have status with the University, to enable the person to move their e-mail and files to another system, and/or to set up mail forwarding to another address (which will last until the account is finally deleted in the next semi-annual purge).
2. reinstatement
   • semi-annual renewal -- This applies to an account which is disabled at each 6-month check because the owner, while having a valid University connection, does not appear in a campus database.
   • re-registration -- This applies to an account whose owner skipped a semester, but has just re-registered for the next semester.

Call the OIT Help Desk with the following information:

1. Full name (spell it if leaving a message)
2. Directory ID (likewise spell it)
3. University ID number
4. Circumstances/reasons under which the restoration of access is being requested
5. Telephone number, including area code (if leaving a message)