Topic: User account name length

[Luca]

I've tried to add user account with more than 12 character, but the browser manager didn't work (account name too long: the maximum is 12 characters).

Can anyone tell me how to set up long name user? (Of course mantaining all the function of the server, expecially e-mail function)

Thanks Luca

[Jason Miller]

The 12 character limit is required for compatibility with Win9x machines regarding shares.  If a share name is > 13 characters these clients will not be able to view its contents.

Try using version 4.1 of the software which was released Monday evening.  There is a new feature called pseudonyms which acts as a nice workaround for the 12 character limit.

So instead of creating a userid johnoppenheimer, do something like this instead:

userid: johno
firstname: John
lastname: Oppenheimer

This means that the share name is < 13 characters and in 4.1 you will automatically get two other pseudonyms for the account, therefore email going to:

johno@yourdomain.xxx

is the same as email going to:

john.oppenheimer@yourdomain.xxx
john_oppenheimer@yourdomain.xxx

(these are free features which happen for EVERY user account created).

You can then also add your own pseudonyms from the panel.  For more information view the e-smith manual (http://www.e-smith.org/docs/manual/)

Jay

[Jason Miller]

The 12 character limit is required for compatibility with Win9x machines regarding shares.  If a share name is > 13 characters these clients will not be able to view its contents.

Try using version 4.1 of the software which was released Monday evening.  There is a new feature called pseudonyms which acts as a nice workaround for the 12 character limit.

So instead of creating a userid johnoppenheimer, do something like this instead:

userid: johno
firstname: John
lastname: Oppenheimer

This means that the share name is < 13 characters and in 4.1 you will automatically get two other pseudonyms for the account, therefore email going to:

johno@yourdomain.xxx

is the same as email going to:

john.oppenheimer@yourdomain.xxx
john_oppenheimer@yourdomain.xxx

(these are free features which happen for EVERY user account created).

You can then also add your own pseudonyms from the panel.  For more information view the e-smith manual (http://www.e-smith.org/docs/manual/)

Jay

[Brandon Friedman]

As far as I know you can't make the account names longer than 12 characters but what you can do (if using 4.1) is use pseudonyms (e-mail aliases) i.e :
Full name: John Smith
Account name: jsmith (or smithj, whatever u like)
Psuedonym: john.smith & john_smith (these will automatically be created on 4.1)

Regards
BF

[Luca]

Ok, this is a good feature, but I wish to login from every client which has already username (long...) and password set, mantaining this settings used to look for e-mail from every computer on the intranet.

Bye Luca

[Jason Miller]

Sorry for the double posting earlier - a little browser trouble.

Not quite sure I understand your last posting, but I'll try:

This won't hurt your existing users and their mail settings.  If you already had some set with long user accounts then things will still work as expected.  If you're running 4.0.1, and you do the upgrade to 4.1 the special pseudonyms will automatically get generated for you for already existant users, and then any additional ones added later will also get the feature.

In terms of setting up your mail clients, you always set them up so that the user account used to get the mail from the server is the full account - not the pseudonyms (those are just extra perks which happen to forward the mail to the user account).  All users still use the user account for logging in, checking mail, accessing shares, etc.  Its just with pseudonyms, you get the ability to have mail sent to .@yourdomain.xxx as well as the other features.

So you will lose any pattern you were trying to setup with all useraccounts (i.e. all accounts are as some will fall outside the range).

Hope that helps.

Jay

[Luca]

My problem was not to change the the long user account (.) set in every client computer (too much work!)

I found a solution changing the script which manage the accounts:
/etc/e-smith/web/functions/useraccounts

Thank you for explaining me why the limitation to 12 character was set.

Bye Luca