mattmey Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 (edited) Hi, I'm new to TotalChoice Hosting. (Let me first say that I am very impressed by the ease of use and technical support I've seen so far. I made the right choice!) I'm curious if it's possible to change the login name used to access the cPanel? I guess as default it's set to the first few letters of our names, but are we able to change it to something more secure? I've searched the forums but can't find anything on this topic. Thanks a lot, Matt Edited March 30, 2005 by mattmey Quote
TCH-Don Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 Welcome to the Family Matt and your new home! You can open a help desk ticket (link at top of page) to Customer Service and ask, no guarantees, but worth a try. We really are like family here. So if you need anything, just ask your new family! We love to help Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 Welcome to the forums and family Matt The user names are generated automatically and in the past user names would not be changed. But as Don said, you could always ask. Quote
abinidi Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 The user names are generated automatically and in the past user names would not be changed. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm curious to know the reasoning behind this policy. It seems strange to me that you don't allow users to change their username for their cpanel accounts. Is it a simply a policy issue (whoever wrote the policy thought it was a bad idea), or is there a software/hardware issue that brought about this policy? Quote
TCH-BillH Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 I'm curious to know the reasoning behind this policy. It seems strange to me that you don't allow users to change their username for their cpanel accounts. Is it a simply a policy issue (whoever wrote the policy thought it was a bad idea), or is there a software/hardware issue that brought about this policy? I can partially answer that ... Unless a user ID is unintentionally offensive, the randomness yields a level of security for your account and for the TCH servers. User names that resemble the domain names and/or are common are easier for people to guess and erode the security of your website. Let's not make it any easier for those meaning to do harm to you or TCH by keeping these random user IDs whenever possible. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 And just to follow up with what TCH-BillH has said. We cannot change the main username once the account is set up, without totally wiping your account out, and recreating it on our servers. If you want this done, now is the time to do it. Please go to the Support Desk, and open a support ticket, and ask that this get done. Make sure you list the username you want, as well as the password. HOWEVER, keep in mind that the username can ONLY be 8 letters long, so the one wanted will not work. Who says perl scripts dont have a sense of humor. Please understand that our username and password process is 100% automated. I promise you not one person on my staff would have given you the username "blackho". With that said, there is a no-username change policy in effect here at TCH. It is simply to difficult to pull off name changes for every one that isnt happy with a username. However, in your case I think we could accomodate a change. Let me run this pass my staff and we will figure something out. Bill And you can also view this thread. Quote
abinidi Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 Unless a user ID is unintentionally offensive, the randomness yields a level of security for your account and for the TCH servers. User names that resemble the domain names and/or are common are easier for people to guess and erode the security of your website. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That is interesting. I guess it depends on how you look at it. If you could enforce good usernames (make them unique from letter combinations in the domain), then you would have better security if users could change their usernames. I guess my concern is what if somebody were to find out my username; I can always change my password, but it would be more secure if I could change my username as well. Again, assuming that you could enforce good usernames. Thanks for the reply, BillH Quote
TCH-BillH Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 I believe Bruce answered your question with this quote: We cannot change the main username once the account is set up, without totally wiping your account out, and recreating it on our servers. Hopefully this helps you understand why changing user names is not as simple as changing a password. Quote
goatgirl Posted April 3, 2005 Posted April 3, 2005 Unless a user ID is unintentionally offensive, the randomness yields a level of security for your account and for the TCH servers. User names that resemble the domain names and/or are common are easier for people to guess and erode the security of your website. Let's not make it any easier for those meaning to do harm to you or TCH by keeping these random user IDs whenever possible. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm confused. I have opened several accounts at TCH and the username has never been random, it always the first seven letters of the domain name, which, as you point out, is not very secure. I expect that is why the original poster wanted to know if they could change it. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted April 3, 2005 Posted April 3, 2005 Depending on when the hosting plan was purchased will result in how the user name is/was created. When PerlBill is used (currently it is) the user names are not randomly generated. When ModernBill was used it would create a random name for the account. So some of the customers have user accounts resembling their domain names and others have something completely random. Usernames can be reset without deleting and recreating the accounts - but sometimes results in a mess with scripts - so this is the reason TCH discourages it. Quote
tomowa Posted April 3, 2005 Posted April 3, 2005 (edited) I'm confused. I have opened several accounts at TCH and the username has never been random, it always the first seven letters of the domain name, which, as you point out, is not very secure. I expect that is why the original poster wanted to know if they could change it. This is what my knowledge is also with WHM/Cpanel managed servers. The first seven digits of the domain name. Certainly not random. And how this can be 'secure' is beyond me. Take the first seven digits of the domain name, and you have half of the persons account info. If it was truely random, like "Xi8R4sS" that would be great, but if not, why not just let the user specify his desired username when he signs up. It only take 5 second's to type it in during creation. I have a domain 'tomowa'. When I created it, the host where it is currently hosted added another digit to it, to make it 7 digits, and I found the resulting name 'stupid' so to speak. He wouldn't delete the account, and create a new one for. Thats one of many reasons I am looking for some place new to move to. Just my ramblings Tom Hi Bruce, while I was making my post I see you added a bit of info..It helps explain things as to the who, how and why Edited April 3, 2005 by tomowa Quote
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