Identity and Access Management

UW NetID Frequently Asked Questions

Developer FAQs

1. Do UW NetIDs change?
2. Are UW NetIDs recycled?
3. Do UW NetIDs support 2-factor authentication?
4. What characters do UW NetIDs support?
5. Who/what has a UW NetID?
6. Is LDAP authentication supported?
7. How do I get a list of UW NetIDs for my department?

General FAQs

1. How do I change my UW NetID?
2. How can I find out what my UW NetID is?
3. How do I retrieve a forgotten Private Access Code (PAC)?
4. How do people without an official UW appointment get a UW NetID?
5. How do I create a UW NetID as a UW employee?
6. How do I create a new UW NetID as a student?
7. How do Visiting Scholars create a new UW NetID?
8. I know my password. How do I change it?
9. How can I get a new password for a UW NetID or C&C account?
10. How do I request a supplemental account?

Developer FAQs

1. Do UW NetIDs change?

   
   Yes, Personal and Shared UW NetIDs can change. Personal UW NetID changes can be requested by individuals under two circumstances:
   • If the individual is dealing with a harassment issue.
   • If the individual wishes to change his or her UW NetID to something closser to his or her own name.
   Shared UW NetIDs can be changed at the request of the owner.
   
   Technical Note: This can cause problems for application developers who do not plan for this when developing UW NetID protected applications. We highly recommend using the RegID as the primary identifier for a person instead of the UW NetID.

2. Are UW NetIDs recycled?

   
   This depends on the type of UW NetID. A personal UW NetID remains with one person for the lifetime of that person. Currently, anytime a person's UW NetID is changed their old UW NetID is left associated with them as a Prior UW NetID. A shared UW NetID can be repurposed and the ownership can change at anytime without any notification to your application. Temporary UW NetIDs are even more transient. At any time a Temporary UW NetID can belong to a different individual.

3. Do UW NetIDs support 2-factor authentication?

   
   Yes, currently the supported method of two-factor authentication with UW NetIDs is RSA's SecurID.

4. What characters do UW NetIDs support?

   
   Personal and Shared UW NetIDs can be between 1 and 8 characters, must be lower case letters or numbers and first character must not be a number. Reserved UW NetIDs and Temp UW NetIDs can be 1 to 128 characters and includes lower case letters, numbers, underscores and dashes.

5. Who/what has a UW NetID?

   
   UW NetIDs support a wide set of populations and uses.