User Accounts
IT Support
Guide for New Users
The IT Services Unit (DSI) issues user accounts to all students, professors, researchers and non-teaching staff in the Faculty of Sciences. Temporary accounts may also be created, on an optional basis, for guests or to support the organisation of short-term events. Each account and its password are personal and non-transferable. When applying for an account, users undertake to use it solely for educational and scientific purposes, within the scope of their activities at the Faculty of Sciences. Should any misuse of the account be detected, it may be cancelled.
Student Account
A student account can be requested by any student of Ciências (or external student taking courses in Ciências) who is duly registered with the academic services. The account provides access to all services available to students, including, therefore, access to laboratory computers, email, the wireless network (eduroam), the website and Moodle.
Login details are provided to new students at the time of enrolment, or in person at the DSI upon presentation of their student card. The username for this account will be in the format fcNNNNN@alunos.fc.ul.pt (where NNNNN corresponds to the five-digit student number). Both the account and the password are valid for one year. Some services also use a domain-based authentication model. In this case, authentication is carried out using only fcNNNNN, and the domain ALUNOSFC must be selected.
Worker Account
Worker accounts are assigned to all staff at the Faculty of Sciences (staff members, professors, researchers, research fellows, etc.). Accounts are created by accessing the Faculty of Sciences portal and following the link to ‘Create Account’, which can be found on the login (authentication) page.
The username for this account will be in the format XXXX@fc.ul.pt; however, there are still some services where authentication is carried out using only XXXX. During authentication, the original username cannot be replaced by an ‘alias’, which solely allows a single email account to be associated with multiple addresses. The password is valid for one year and must be changed before it expires.
Institutional Account
An institutional account is linked to specific units and groups affiliated with Ciências (research units, departments, conferences, etc.). These accounts are requested by Ciências staff, who take responsibility for their management.
Institutional accounts are requested via the website, on the user management page. Account requests automatically generate an email asking the head of the unit (Centre/Department) specified on the form to which the account will be linked to validate the request. Once validated, a letter containing instructions on how to set up the account will be sent to the unit via internal post.
The username for this account will be in the format XXXX@fc.ul.pt. The password is valid for one year and must be changed before it expires. Some services also use a domain-based authentication model. In this case, authentication is carried out using XXXX only, and the FC domain must be selected.
Setting and changing your password
Together with the username, the password uniquely identifies Ciências ULisboa users across all network services provided. In order to make it more difficult for third parties to obtain the password – which could compromise user data and system security – the password must be changed periodically and comply with a set of restrictions.
A valid password can be changed in the following places:
Webmail: accessing the "Change Password" page, available in the "Options" menu of the Webmail service;
On a computer running the Windows operating system: the password can also be changed on the computers managed by the DSI, provided they are running the Windows operating system and the domain is requested during the login process (ALUNOSFC for students and FC for staff). Examples of computers meeting these criteria include those in the student areas and many of the staff computers. To change your password, after logging in, press Ctrl + Alt + Del simultaneously, then select the ‘Change Password’ option.
A password that has expired or been blocked can be changed in the following places:
Balcão C: by selecting the ‘Access service’ option available at Balcão C in the ‘Password set up and change‘ service.
You can change or recover your password in person at the IT Services Unit’s service desk. Check the opening hours here.
Federated Login (RCTSaai Federation)
Ciências user accounts provide access to services for which authentication is supported by the RCTSaai Federation, managed by the FCCN. RCTSaai is “composed of a group of institutions – identity providers and service providers – which agree to share, securely and confidentially, the attributes of their users that are necessary for their authentication and authorisation to access services”. The federation facilitates access to a range of services for users of the institutions that have joined this service in a transparent, secure and straightforward manner, as authentication for these services takes place within each institution’s own authentication system.
The federated services available to Ciências are:
Authenticus
Colibri 1.0 e 2.0
DreamSpark
Filesender
Authentication for any of the services provided by RCTSaai always takes place on the login page of the Ciências portal (https://id.fc.ul.pt), with users being automatically redirected for authentication. During the process, users are informed of the data sent to the service for which they have requested authentication.