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Identity Services

NetID Identity Management

NetID Account Usage

A NetID account is required for access to most Texas A&M University information systems. A NetID account allows the account holder to authenticate (verify their identity by entering the correct NetID Credential, i.e. I am who I say I am.) on any application using CAS or the NetID AD DS password service. Whether or not a person is authorized to use the resource they are trying to access with their NetID Credential is determined by the application separate from the authentication process.

InCommon Participant logo

Texas A&M University's membership in InCommon provides Texas A&M NetID account holders with the ability to use their NetID Credential to authenticate to participating higher education and federal government online services.

NetID Account Eligibility

There are two categories of people eligible for a Texas A&M NetID account.

Personnel affiliated with the university through employment, enrollment, or some other pre-existing relationship

Texas A&M NetID accounts are available to:

  • Employees:
    • employees of The Texas A&M University System
    • non-System Texas A&M University Qatar campus employees
    • non-System Texas A&M Health Science Center employees
  • Students
    • applicants to Texas A&M University current and/or future semesters
    • Texas A&M University admits for current and future semesters
    • Texas A&M University students enrolled in past, current, or future semester courses
    • Texas A&M Health Science Center students enrolled in current semester courses
  • Affiliates
    • Employees of organizations located on Texas A&M campuses:
      • Texas A&M Foundation
      • The Association of Former Students
      • 12th Man Foundation
      • Office of the Commandant: US Department of Defense personnel stationed on campus
      • USDA-ARS Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center
      • Kalon Biotherapeutics, LLC
      • Barnes & Noble campus bookstore
      • Compass Group, USA personnel stationed on campus
    • Visiting scholars and professors
  • Retirees:
    • all retirees of The Texas A&M University System

With the exception of those who have been Texas A&M University enrolled students, a Texas A&M NetID account becomes eligible for deletion when the account holder is no longer affiliated with any Registration Authority. Texas A&M enrolled students remain eligibile for a NetID account indefinitely.

Personnel sponsored by a university employee or student

A sponsored NetID account is an account created for a guest or visitor who requires temporary access to the campus network in support of legitimate University work. Accounts can be sponsored by Texas A&M organizational units or by individuals with an active affiliation.

Account sponsors have certain responsibilities. They have to identify and justify the business reason for the account and they must also communicate to the guest the University's rules on appropriate use.

The initial deployment of this account category has been to provide parent access to Texas A&M University services.

Sponsored accounts have an account expiration date set when the account is requested. The NetID account expires on that date. The account will also expire if the account sponsor leaves the university.

Requesting a NetID Account

Departments can request NetID accounts for visiting scholars or visiting student interns for stays of at least one month.

The visiting person's supervisor, sponsor or the HR representative for the sponsoringg department should fill out and submit the NetID Account Request Form.

The Identity Management Office will establish an account and respond to the specified contact, who passes the information onto the individual. The individual can then activate their NetID account at gateway.tamu.edu.

NetID Account Lifecycle

Management of a NetID account differs based on the type of affiliation the account holder has with the university. The following documents provide details of management processes for the various university populations.

NetID Password Management

Management of a NetID password encompasses a number of practices. The table and comments below describe the default password management practices for Texas A&M NetID account holder populations. More stringent password management practices are implemented via the account holder's tamuEduPersonPasswordPolicy settings.

Texas A&M NetID Default Password Management Practices
  Guests\Applicants\Admitted Students All Other Populations
Minimum length of password 8 8
Maximum length of password 128 128
Password is character checked Yes Yes
Maximum age of password (in days) exempt 180
Days of daily expiration warnings exempt once per week for 3 weeks
Password minimum age for reset (in days) 0 0
Password uniqueness/history 6 6
Failed attempts before lockout (CAS) 7 7
Lockout duration in minutes (CAS) 15 15
May reset forgotten password via Self-Service Password Reset Yes Yes
May reset forgotten password via HelpDesk Central phone Yes Yes
May reset forgotten password in person Yes Yes
  • Each attempt to change a password is checked to ensure that the new password conforms to the character requirements.
    • A password must contain at least one (1) lowercase letter.
    • A password must contain at least one (1) uppercase letter.
    • A password must contain at least one (1) non-alphabetic symbol.
    • A password must contain only the following characters: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, `~!@#$%^&*()-_=+[{]}\|:;',<.>?/
    • A password may not contain words found in a dictionary.
    • A password may not contain the user's NetID.
  • Passwords expire after a specific number of days as shown in the table.
  • When the current date is close to the date of password expiration, messages will be sent weekly to the user's university business email address indicating that the password is about to expire and giving instructions for resetting the password. One week prior to the expiration date, any attempts to authenticate via CAS will redirect the account holder to the password change application.
  • Password uniqueness/history counts the number of passwords stored by the system to ensure that a password is not reset to one that was previously used.
  • Failed attempts before lockout counts the number of attempts a user may have to enter a correct NetID Credential before the account is frozen and may not be accessed.
  • Once an account is frozen, a specific amount of time must pass before the account is automatically unlocked, the failed attempts count is set to zero and the user may again attempt to enter a correct NetID Credential.
  • Self-Service Password Reset is the ability to change a password to something known, even if the user does not currently know their password.
  • Users may be able to reset their password using an alternative authentication mechanism by calling HelpDesk Central and having them flag the account.
  • Users may be able to reset their password by appearing in person with a photo ID.

Additional Resources