Changing passwords

Passwords prevent others from using your User ID. When your administrator creates your User ID, he or she decides whether it needs a password, and what type of password is required. Once you access IBM® Notes® for the first time, you should change your password to something that you can remember but is hard for others to guess.

Your administrator can also set an expiration date for your password, forcing you to change your password periodically. If your password expires before you change it, you can still login to Notes® using your old password, but you cannot access any servers. You can only access local databases. You must change your password to regain server access.

If you are using a Smartcard to log in to Notes®, you do not need to use a password. Instead, you use the Personal Identification Number (PIN) for your Smartcard.

To change your Notes® password

  1. Click File > Security > User Security (Macintosh OS X users: Notes > Security > User Security).
  2. Click Security Basics, and then click Change Password under Your Login and Password Settings.
  3. In the Change Password dialog box, enter a new password in the Enter new password field, and then enter it again in the Re-enter new password field.
    Note: Your new password must differ from a certain number of passwords you have used in the past before you can reuse an old password. The number is set by your administrator and is indicated in the Change Password dialog box. For example, if you had set your password to Hello at one time, and the dialog box states that your new password must differ from your last 4 passwords, you would have to use 4 new passwords before you could reuse Hello again.
  4. (Optional) If you are not required to set a password for your User ID, you are able to click No Password and Notes® sets your User ID to not prompt for a password.
  5. Click OK.
Note: Your ID may be backed up into an ID vault on a server; the User Security window will indicate this. In this case, if you change the password on your local ID copy or your administrator changes the password on the copy of the ID in the vault, you can log in to Notes® from any workstation using the new password if your Notes® client is connected to the network. If your Notes® client is not connected to the network, you can continue to use the old password until a network connection is available. If you run Notes® from more than one workstation, you do not have to copy the ID file with a new password to each workstation that you use for Notes®, or change the password on each copy; this step is needed only if your ID is not in a vault.

To change your Domino® Web/Internet password

Your administrator may have given you an IBM® Domino® Web/Internet password, which is the password you need for HTTP, POP3, IMAP, LDAP, and DIIOP access, as well as for logging in to Domino® Web applications and databases through a Web browser. By default, you can change your Domino® Web/Internet password whenever you like. If the following procedure is not available to you, contact your administrator for help on changing your Internet password.

The first time you authenticate with a Domino® server, by accessing a database through a Web browser, you may be prompted to change your Internet password automatically.

  1. To change your Internet password manually, enter the URL for a Web application and add ?changepassword after the database name at the end of the URL. For example, http://serverName.acme.com/databasename.nsf?changepassword.
  2. In the Change Password screen, enter your old Internet password, enter a new Internet password, and then confirm your new Internet password by entering it again in the corresponding fields. The password quality guidelines are the same as the Notes® password guidelines.
  3. Click Submit.

You can use either your old Internet password or your new Internet password for two days after you submit a new password, provided the server you authenticate with, or HTTP, is not shut down. Otherwise, you must use your new Internet password.

Password quality versus password length

Passwords can consist of any combination of keyboard characters. They are case-sensitive and are accepted according to either the quality of protection they can give or to the character length of the password. Your administrator determines whether password requirements are based on quality or length. The Change Password dialog box states whether you must create a password according to a required length or required quality level.

For password length, your password must have the number of characters shown in the Change Password dialog box.

For password quality, the higher the number shown in the Change Password dialog box, the stronger quality your password must be (0 is the lowest, 16 is the highest). The stronger the quality, the harder it is for others to guess your password.

When creating a password, you should use lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and punctuation marks to increase the quality of your password. If you enter a low-quality password, such as words found in the dictionary, common names, or repeating characters, Notes® may reject your password and ask you to enter a new one.

Note: The combination of characters you choose for your Notes® password may not work with all features. Check with your administrator to make sure your character combination will work with other password-enabled features that have been enabled for you.