[10538] in Athena Bugs
decmips 7.4H: registration
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Roger A. Roach)
Sun Jun 6 13:39:27 1993
To: bugs@Athena.MIT.EDU
Date: Sun, 06 Jun 93 13:39:19 EDT
From: Roger A. Roach <rar@MIT.EDU>
System name: rar
Type and version: KN01 7.4H (1 update(s) to same version)
Display type: PMAX-CFB
What were you trying to do?
I was trying to help Kevin Gedrich sign up on an Athena mailing list.
What's wrong:
When we tried to login as "gedrich", Athena said that he was
not a valid userid. We then tried to use register to register him. After
entering all the information and wait the prescibed time, it told us that
he was already registered, but was not permitted to use Athena resources.
Knowing that this is true for many IS employees, I called Athena User Accounts
to "turn on the bit that allows them to get a full Athena account".
After checking, User Accounts replied that gedrich had an entry in
the name space, but did not have a Kerberos instance. (I assume that it
had been entered when he sighed up for TechMail before TechMail knew about
Kerberos.) I was instructed to have Kevin come to building 11 with a picture
ID to establish a Kerberos instance. I instead asked Scott Thorne to add him
to the mailing list.
What should have happened:
1. The register program should be smart enough to detect this case and
not assume that the problem is with the Athena bit (or whatever it is called.)
2. Users without a Kerberos instance should be able to interactively
sign up just as every other employee, perhaps with some warning to change
their TechMail settings.
3. It would be nice if User Accounts had some way to authenicate a user
without having them go physically to building 11. This may be satisfactory
for students, but will be very distasteful for administrators. It is
especially a problem for people not close to the center of campus like W91,
E19 or Lincoln Lab. (Perhaps calling them back at their listed office
phone no.)
Please describe any relevant documentation references:
[Please replace this line with your information.]
