Overview

At Carnegie Mellon, the campus servers DO NOT allow authentication methods that transmit your login information (i.e., user ID and password) using clear-text.

• Clear-text transmission methods transfer your user ID and password WITHOUT converting them to an encrypted form. In other words, your user ID and password are readable to outsiders who may attempt to intercept and use your information.
• Encrypted methods such as SSH (Secure Shell), SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), or TLS (Transport Layer Security) provide strong authentication and secure communication methods that protect you from attacks.

If your computer is managed by a Carnegie Mellon departmental computing administrator, please consult that person to be sure that you are using supported authentication methods. Otherwise, refer to the charts below if you need help with converting to, or have questions about email, FTP and Telnet clients that access Computing Services' servers via supported encrypted authentication methods.

Last Updated:  February 1, 2007