NetID Login Overview

A high-level overview of NetID login and some of its features
  1. NetID FAQ
  2. What is a NetID?
    1. Eligibility for NetID
    2. Activating your NetID
    3. Changing your NetID
    4. Changing your NetID Password and Recovery Questions
    5. What if I've Forgotten My NetID?
  3. Logging into Active Directory with your NetID and Resetting the Password
  4. Validating NetID Login Page
    1. Check the Certificate
    2. Confirm SSL
  5. ITE NetID Accounts (Test NetIDs)
    1. ITE Account Recovery
    2. Application Owners / Operators / Developers
        

NetID FAQ:


https://kb.wisc.edu/iam/internal/4119

What is a NetID?

A NetID is your username which allows access to University services, such as Office 365 email, MyUW, calendaring, student records, payroll information, etc. The NetID username is not case sensitive when used as a login credential. Your NetID username is randomly generated from University records and typically includes some combination of your first, middle, and last name. Your NetID username is not the same as your campus ID number or your email address.

Eligibility for NetID

Your NetID will remain active for the entirety of your time at the University. It may also remain active after leaving the University, but this depends on your affiliation. For more information about NetID eligibility, please see NetID - Eligibility Policy

Activating Your NetID

New students, faculty, and staff must activate their NetID before it can be used. For instructions on activating your NetID, please see NetID - Activating Your Account.

Students, faculty and staff who leave and later return to the University may need to activate their NetID upon return. Otherwise, if you are still able to login when you return, login to the NetID Modification utility to activate missing NetID services.

Changing your NetID username

Due to the volume of users in our system, there are limited circumstances under which you can change your NetID username. Please see NetID - Changing Your NetID for more information.

Changing your NetID Password and Setting Recovery Questions

If you need to change your NetID password and you know your current password, or if you need to set recovery questions, you can do so at the NetID Account Modification Utility.

If you are unsure of your current NetID password, you can reset your password with the Password Recovery Utility. If you are unable to reset your password using this tool, call the Help Desk at (608) 264-HELP or appear in person at the Onsite Help Desk (7:45am-5:00pm Mon-Fri) to have your password reset.

What if I've forgotten my NetID?

If you are unsure of your NetID, you can obtain it via the NetID Recovery Utility. If you have difficulty recovering your NetID, you can call the Help Desk at (608) 264-HELP or appear in person at the Onsite Help Desk (7:45am-5:00pm Mon-Fri) to obtain it.

Logging in with a NetID and Password Reset

Your Campus Active Directory username will be your NetID.

When providing a NetID credential to a host joined to the Campus Active Directory, username should be entered in one of the following formats:

  1. NetID@wisc.edu (Recommended)
  2. AD\NetID

All users will enter the password associated with the NetID account in the Password field when connecting to Campus Active Directory.

Note: The password associated with this credential is the same as your NetID password. If you need to reset your NetID account password, see NetID Account Recovery (Password Reset).

NetID - Validating Login Page

Since your NetID and password are the key to a number of electronic services, it's important that you safeguard them and keep them private. It's also important that you understand how to establish the validity of the site that's prompting you for them.

The University makes a concerted effort to insure that applications make appropriate use of authentication data. You can also take steps to insure that the site you're exchanging information with is a trustworthy one.

Look for the Extended Validation certificate

When you access UW-Madison's legitimate NetID Login page, you will see your browser's address bar turn green (exact appearance will vary depending on browser).

EV Green Address Window

The green highlighting in the browser's address bar is due to the Extended Validation certificate UW-Madison obtained for login.wisc.edu. Extended Validation certificates are only granted after extensive verification of the requesting organization's identity by the certificate authority. The Extended Validation certificate is your assurance that you're accessing the correct site and not a close copy created by someone trying to obtain your NetID and password.

Most browsers provide a way to verify information in the digital certificate passed back to your browser. IE and Mozilla both let you double-click on the closed padlock icon.

To be extra certain, you can check the site's certificate information. If the certificate in your browser does not match the information in the screenshot below, please do not log in.  Immediately contact the Help Desk to initiate a case with DoIT Security.

Extended Validation Certificate Information

Confirm SSL

Whenever you are referred to login.wisc.edu for authentication, your browser should be communicating over SSL, which encrypts the data being transmitted. Most browsers display an indication that traffic to and from the site is encrypted.

In Internet Explorer, this is a closed padlock in the lower right corner:

IE Padlock Image

In Firefox, the left side of the address field displays a closed padlock:

Mozilla SSL visual cue

In Safari, the closed padlock is in the upper right corner of the browser window:

Safari Padlock Image

In Chrome, the padlock appears at the left side of the address field:

Chrome SSL visual cue

ITE NetID Account (A/K/A "Test NetIDs")

Account Recovery

Forgotten passwords in ITE can be reset using the ITE Account Recovery (wwwtest.mynetid.wisc.edu/recovery) using questions set during activation of the ITE account. If that does not work, the user will have to work with the application developer as described below.

It is unlikely that you have a Wiscard in test: Unless you know you do have a Wiscard from the test Wiscard system, be sure to check the "I don't have a Wiscard" checkbox.

Application Owner/Operators/Developers

To Add An Entry

  1. Data must be entered in the appropriate Source System
    • "Student" entries to be flowed will need to be fed in from ISTST, and IAM (formerly Middleware) can only flow data through that exists in ISTST.
    • "Employee" entries are flowed from production on demand.
  2. Send IAM Support (formerly Middleware) the production PVI or NetID of the person you need copied.
    • IAM (formerly Middleware) will most lkely destroy any existing entry for the person in ITE. This is a direct result of the haphazard way that entries were copied in the past, and is why we don't do it that way any more. YOU need to confirm with the person that they do not have anything important associated with their old entry in ITEit will likely be lost.
  3. YOU or the person for whom you are requesting an account will need to activate the account via the link sent or using the Activation Key sent at wwwtest.mynetid.wisc.edu/activateNOTE: the Activation Key is communicated to you by IAM (formerly Middleware), Keys are not synchronized with production. As well, NetIDs are not generally synchronized from production (but may be, on demand, if requested). The next available NetID for the person in the ITE system will be issued, which will likely not be the same one they have in production. This is normal.
  4. The account should be up and working. If you make changes in the source system that you want to be reflected in UDS, you will need to contact IAM (formerly Middleware) to have the entry refreshed. You will need to send their ITE NetID, PVI or other identifier.


Keywords:
NetID, Login, NetID Login, Overview, ITE, faq 
Doc ID:
128934
Owned by:
Justin V. in Identity and Access Management
Created:
2023-06-09
Updated:
2024-08-23
Sites:
DoIT Help Desk, Identity and Access Management