The P-Synch Password Change Tool

Overview

P-synch is the Smith School's password synchronization utility. The user interface is entirely web based and can be found at http://security.rhsmith.umd.edu. With P-synch synchronizing all of your passwords, you can treat the various Smith school accounts as one entity, and don’t have to worry about which account is which.  We often refer to these accounts as your “Smith School login.”

The purpose of the P-Synch tool is to allow you to synchronize a single password across all of your Smith accounts. It will also allow you to reset your passwords without the help of Smith IT by answering a few security questions.

There are three passwords you can synchronize using P-Synch: the Novell file and print, the Lotus Notes Client password (kept in the Notes ID file, usually stored on your “K” drive), and the Lotus Notes Internet Password (used with the iNotes webmail client and Sametime instant messaging).

Those with only an RHSmith forwarding address will not need to synchronize the Lotus Notes Email account password because they do not have a full Lotus Notes account.  Part-time graduate students are typically in this category.

Accounts

Below is a list of the RHSmith accounts. Once you use P-Synch to synchronize the passwords you can treat them as one single “Smith School” account, but it is important to know what they are used for.

 Novell

• Lab Login
• Network drive access
• eSmith Portal Windows Applications (Citrix)

Lotus Notes Email Account (Lotus Notes ID file)

• Smith email via Lotus Notes Client

Domino Web/Lotus Notes Internet Password

• iNotes
• Quickplace
• Sametime

For more detailed information on the accounts used at the Smith school, please visit our website at http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/smithit/accounts/index.html.

Using P-Synch for the first time

CRITICAL STEP: Those with a full Lotus Notes email account need to use the Lotus Notes client in the computer lab or via the eSmith Portal before trying to add or change their Lotus Notes client password.

1) Log in to P-Synch using your Lotus Notes username.

2) Use your Lotus Notes web password, also sometimes called your iNotes password, to log in. (For new students, unless you have changed the password, this should be the password on the account sheet that was given to you during orientation.)

3) The first time you access P-Synch you are required to provide answers to a minimum of four security questions. The questions will be used to gain access to P-Synch in the event of a forgotten password. This means if you forget or have trouble with a password sometime in the future you won't need to contact the help desk and wait for an administrator to reset your passwords... you can do it yourself!

4) CRITICAL STEP: By default, only your Lotus Notes Internet password (iNotes) is part of you P-Synch profile. In order to change your Novell and Lotus Notes client passwords (if you have one) you must add those accounts to your P-Synch profile. To add accounts click the “Add login accounts” link.

5) Type your username (for Novell or the Lotus Notes client) and click the “Find my login IDs” button. P-Synch will then search its database to find your other accounts.

6) P-Synch will display the accounts it was able to find based on the username you supplied. Type your current password for those accounts and click “Add to my profile”; P-Synch will verify your password on both accounts, if P-Synch is able to verify the password it will add the account to your P-Synch profile. If you have changed your passwords you may need to repeat this process, once for the Novell account and once for the Lotus Notes client account.  

Some people find what's being done in this part confusing. To recap, here's the idea, explained another way. P-Synch has a profile for you as a user. Your "username" for this profile is your iNotes password. Stored in your profile are links to other accounts. You need to claim those accounts by giving P-Synch the username you use on those systems, and then validate that you really are the owner of those accounts by giving it your password. 

7) Once you have added your accounts to P-Synch, you can synchronize the passwords. Click the “Change passwords” link on the left hand menu.

When you click the Change passwords list you'll get to pick for which accounts you want to change the password (all of them, by default), and the rules for password quality are displayed on the screen. These rules are strict, but are required to ensure the integrity of our systems.  The Smith rules for password quality are modeled on the University Directory's rule set, and match it as closely as possible.

After changing your passwords you will get a confirmation screen showing where passwords were changed. 

If the change for the password of the Notes Client fails (as shown in the graphic above), your Notes ID file may not be in the P-Synch database. You will need to use the Notes client in the computer lab or in the eSmith Portal once so P-Synch can collect a copy of your Notes ID file.

I need help!  Something here doesn't make sense!  Something isn't working!

The Smith IT help desk can walk you through the process, including resetting your iNotes password to a known value. You can contact them by email at helpme@rhsmith.umd.edu, by phone at 301-405-2269, or in person in VMH 3520. The hours of operation are 8AM to 10PM.