Registration for Central IT Services

3.1. Oxford account

The Oxford account (also called Single Sign-On or SSO) provides a high-security username and password system enabling you to access a variety of University and departmental services using one set of account details. Any new employee or visitor will be sent a letter, immediately after their University Card is created, with the information required to activate this username. Students will be emailed details to the external email address registered with Student Records, a few days after their signed returned University Contract has been processed .

If you do not receive a letter/email, please contact your local IT staff or the OUCS Help Centre via Help Request Form The letter will usually arrive within three working days after your department or college receives your University Card, but this may be a little longer for outlying locations.

If you have a letter but your activation code has expired, please telephone the OUCS Help Centre or fill in Help Request Form quoting the account name and your card barcode number, and we can renew the same code for a further 30 days.

Additional Registration information is available mainly for IT support staff

Facilities available through the Oxford account will be terminated as soon as your University Card expires (except that students can access OSS for a further 6 months).

3.2. Electronic Mail (email)

OUCS provides an email service which is accessible world-wide to entitled members. This is part of the Oxford Nexus service which also provides calendar, address book and other functions. See the Nexus web pages for details of Nexus, including access to email using web browsers or standard email client programs.

At present, a personal email account is set up automatically when a new Oxford Single Sign-On account is created (except in the case of Card Holder and Virtual Access cards who get an SSO account but no mailbox or address), and the email facility will be operational as soon as the Oxford account is activated.

A personal email address is private and redirection arrangements can only be made for a limited period after your University Card expires. See the relevant section below for non-personal email accounts.

3.3. Remote Access

3.4. TSM Backup

The TSM (Tivoli Storage Management) service on the HFS (Hierarchical File Server) provides manual and timed backup facilities for desktop computers and for departmental or college servers.

3.5. Web pages

Personal web pages can be published via your SSO account. To switch on this facility, see the Web space & addresses section of the documentation. You can enter your name in an index of users' personal web pages. Please note: Your private URL will cease to work when your University Card expires. See the relevant sections below for non-personal web accounts.

3.6. Unix

An account on a Linux server can be obtained using your SSO account details. Web pages under The GNU/Linux service describe the facilities.

3.7. Help Centre Network

The Help Centre Network in the OUCS building has facilities such as scanning, colour printing, and some specialised software, for direct access by users. You need to self-register inside the Help Centre.

3.8. e-Science Grid

OUCS Registration is a Registration Authority for the UK e-Science Grid. Details are on the e-Science Grid Registration page.