UT E-mail Account and NetID Information

University and College Policy on E-mail

The University of Tennessee provides free e-mail accounts to students for the entire time of their enrollment in the University. A UT e-mail account is easy to access from any computer with an Internet connection and requires no special software to install or configurations to be made.

In accordance with The University of Tennessee’s e-mail policy effective Fall 2003, the preferred method of communication from The University of Tennessee and the College of Social Work to students enrolled in our programs is via e-mail. The University automatically creates free e-mail accounts for all students upon admittance to the Universtiy. Only University of Tennessee e-mail addresses will be used for all official University and College of Social Work communication with students. Per the University policy, students will be held accountable for information contained in official University and College mailings to their UT e-mail accounts.

The University's e-mail system is called T-mail and runs on Microsoft Outlook Web Access. T-mail may be accessed at http://tmail.utk.edu.

What is a NetID? What is it used for? What is my NetID password?

Every faculty, staff, and student is assigned a unique identifier called a NetID. Associated with every NetID is a NetID password. The combination of the NetID and NetID password are what is used to log into systems such as Online@UT, Circle Park Online, and the library databases.

If you do not know your NetID, you must first find it using UT's Online Directory. The directory can be found at http://directory.utk.edu/. Enter your full first name and last name in the box provided, and click on the "Submit" button. If you are the only person with that name, you should get a screen with information about you (name, address, phone, etc.). You may get a screen that gives you two or more names to choose from - choose the link that contains your information. (If you do not get any results from your search, try the search again using just your last name. If you continue to have difficulties, please contact the UT HelpDesk at 865-974-9900.) In the upper-right portion of that page, you will see your NetID. (Typically, your NetID is the first letter of your first name, and the first seven letters of your last name. If you have a common last name, your NetID may also contain numbers.)

A person's default NetID password is made up of the following three pieces of information:

1. the first two letters of the month you were born (in lower case!)
2. the last two digits of the year you were born
3. the last four digits of your UT ID number

For example, if you were born on June 10, 1977 and your UT ID is 123-45-6789, then your default NetID password would be 'ju776789'.

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) recommends that you change your default NetID password to something more secure and harder to guess. (For security reasons, the NetID password must be changed every 180 days.) To change your NetID password, go to http://directory.utk.edu and click the "change" button. Important: After changing your password, go back to http://directory.utk.edu and click the "enable" button so that if you should forget your password, you can easily reset it online.

When you change either your NetID password, the new password must meet certain complexity requirements:

• It be a minimum of 8 characters in length
• It contain a combination of at least three of the following four items:
1. uppercase letters
2. lowercase letters
3. punctuation
4. numbers
• You may not re-use your last NetID 10 passwords

T-mail password

At this time, the T-mail system uses the NetID for a person's username, but the NetID password is NOT synchronized with the T-mail system - it is a separate password. As a new student to the University, your first T-mail password will be your default NetID password. The T-mail password should also be changed at your earliest convenience. To change your T-mail password, go to https://tmail.utk.edu/uact/ and click the "Change Password" link. Like the NetId password, the T-mail password must also be changed every 180 days.

When you change your T-mail password, the new password must meet certain complexity requirements:

• It be a minimum of 8 characters in length
• It contain at least three of the following:
1. uppercase letters
2. lowercase letters
3. punctuation
4. numbers
• may not contain a significant portion of your username or displayname

Many students have found it easier to change their NetID password and their T-mail password at the same time so that both passwords are on the same 180-day clock. While the passwords are on separate systems, you may make both passwords the same for ease in remembering them, but this is not required.

Logging into and using T-mail

T-mail may be accessed at http://tmail.utk.edu.

Detailed information on logging into and using T-mail may be found in UT's Life Preserver at http://oit.utk.edu/lifep/p5.html.

If you should have any problems using your NetID or T-mail, please call the OIT HelpDesk at 865-974-9800.