Activating an RCI Account

RCI.rutgers.edu (for "Research Computing Initiative") is the staff central computing system for the New Brunswick campus. Any faculty member, full-time staff member, or graduate assistant whose information has been entered into the RIAS III payroll system ("on-boarded") and approved by University Human Resources can create an account on RCI. If the faculty/staff member needs an RCI account before the entry is approved, and the person is re-activating a former NetID (i.e., has been at Rutgers before), then the departmental payroll person can apply for an emergency NetID. Part-time staff and people affiliated with, but not paid by, Rutgers can get a guest account if their department submits a request. For guest account information see the following: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/guest-form-text.html

NetIDs 

All new employees are automatically assigned a NetID. (People returning to Rutgers as employees may have NetIDs assigned from their previous career at Rutgers.) The NetID is used as the username for the RCI account. NetIDs should always be entered all in lowercase letters. In order to activate an RCI account you will need to activate your Rutgers NetID first. This can be done by going to http://netid.rutgers.edu and clicking on NetID Activation. As part of the NetID Activation process you will also have the option of activating your RCI Account Service.

Choosing a Secure Password

As part of the NetID Activation Process, you will be asked to provide a password. There are rules governing password selection.  It is important to construct a password that is easy to remember and adheres to the following rules.

  • Your password must be at least 10 but no more than 63 characters.
  • Your password must contain a minimum of 3 character classes. The characters on the keyboard are grouped into categories known as classes. They are as follows:

                 Lowercase letters (a-z) 
                 Uppercase letters (A-Z) 
                 Numerals (0-9) 
                 Special characters (e.g. $ * ) 

  • Spaces, tabs, colons (:) and carriage returns are not allowed.
  • You cannot re-use any of your previous 5 passwords.
  • Passwords will expire every 12 months; passwords must be changed once a year.

Creating a password that contains a minimum of 3 character classes means that you must include one character from at least 3 of the different categories.  For example, ABCD+12345 would be a valid password because it includes uppercase characters, a special character, and numbers. (However, no one should actually choose a password as easy to guess as that example.) Another example is Abcde12345 which has upper and lower case letters and numbers.

Note: For your own security, do not use either of the above passwords.

If you ever need to reset your NetID Password please go to http://netid.rutgers.edu and click on Manage NetID Password. You will need to know your current password to use this tool.

Activating an RCI Account with an existing NetID

If you already have an existing NetID and want to activate the optional RCI account please do the following:

  1. Go to the web page http://netid.rutgers.edu and click on Service Activation.
  2. Log in with your NetID and Password.
  3. The next screen will have all of the optional services you are entitled to. For the RCI service click the checkbox for rci.rutgers.edu.
  4. Click the Activate Services button.
After 15 minutes you should be able to access all RCI Services using your NetID and password.

Additional Help

If you are in a Campus Computing Center, contact the consultant on duty.  Otherwise, contact the OIT/NBCS Help Desk at 732-445-HELP(4357) or go to the following: http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/ic. The Help Desk is located in Room 005, Hill Center, Busch Campus.