RCS Accounts

To use the Rensselaer Computing System (RCS), you must have a Rensselaer userid which is available only to members of the Rensselaer community (student, faculty, or staff). This userid allows access to the campus network (including printers), the Internet, and electronic mail.

How do I obtain my Rensselaer userid?

Each summer, new students pick up their userids at Student Orientation. You may also pick up your Rensselaer userid at the Help Desk in the VCC. Latecomers, returning students, faculty, and staff can also pick up their accounts at the Help Desk. You will need to show your Rensselaer I.D. card in order to pick up your userid.

In most cases, the userid, which is pre-created for you, consists of the first five characters of your last name and your first initial. If duplicate userids are created, a one- or two-digit number may be added at the end of your userid as needed to make the name unique. Some users have discovered that this formula can create some unfortunate userids. Following certain guidelines, which still require the userid to begin with the first letters of your last name, you can request a change to your userid. Forms are available at the VCC Help Desk.

Click here for information on changing your password.

At the start of each fall and spring semester, each user receives a free allocation of $12.50 for black & white printing. (The allocation is $6.25 for each summer session.) This allocation is reset at the beginning of each new semester; any "money" you do not spend on printing is not carried over to the next semester. After this allocation is used up, charges are added to your (or your department's) monthly Telecommunications bill from Rensselaer.

Click here for information on printing charges.

You can run a program on RCS, called pagestatus, to see how many free pages you have used.

Accounts are allocated 25 megabytes of disk space You can fill out a form (available at the VCC Reception Counter) to request extra disk space or issue the UNIX command quota_request # (where # is the total disk quota you would like). The additional charge is 25 cents per megabyte per month for up to 50 MB. Each additional MB over 50 MB costs 15 cents per MB per month. These charges will appear on your Telecommunications bill.

If you wish to request space to share with others or have it charged to a department account, you can request space in the /locker directory by filling out a form available at the VCC Help Desk. If you open /locker storage for a project, that disk space will remain available to all other project members even if you leave Rensselaer and your Rensselaer userid is closed. If you share files in your userid with others, and your Rensselaer userid is closed, other project members would no longer be able to access project files.

Can I keep my account when I graduate?

Your computer account will expire about two weeks after graduation.

Rensselaer alumni can choose to enroll in the "E-Mail for Life" program, a free "@alum.rpi.edu" e-mail account. You may sign up for an E-mail for Life account as early as your junior year. The accounts are also available to all grad students, and Rensselaer at Hartford alumni.

To register for E-mail for Life, go to http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/kit/emailforlife.html.

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