Many of our customers have a server network with a server password expiry policy, meaning they have to change the password every 30 days or so. We have had a few clients come across this issue – when your server password expires, what do you do? What about if you aren’t in the office? How does this affect mobile phone or iPad connection? Here’s the solution.
Change password in-office
If you can be in the office (where the server is) – this is the easiest way to do it. If you aren’t prompted to change your password, you can;
- Login to Windows
- Press Ctrl-Alt-Del
- Choose ‘Change Password’
- Type your old password, and your new one, and then your new one again.
- You can now update the password on your iPhone / iPad / Android device (see below)
Change Laptop Password Out-Of-Office
If you are out of the office for any reason, maybe you work from home most of the time, you need to be careful about updating your password. This is because you can change the password in the laptop’s memory, which does not update the server.
The Wrong Way
When you login to your laptop you asked to change your password, and you do so before you have connected your VPN (because you have to login to connect the VPN, right? see below).
If you have done this, proceed to ‘The Wrong Way un-done’
The problem is that when you log into your laptop this way, you are not connected to the server yet, so updating your password this way means the server is out-of-sync and your password is still expired on the server.
The Right Way – Password Expires In A Few Days
- Log into your laptop with your old password – if you are prompted to change your password because it expires soon, say NO. If you have to change it now before you can log on, say NO and see below.
- Connect your VPN connection, sometimes we call it a remote office connection.
- Press Ctrl-Alt-Del
- Choose ‘Change Password’
- Type your old password, then your new password, then new password again
- When you press OK you go back to the desktop, press Ctrl-Alt-Del again
- Choose ‘Lock Computer’
- Your computer goes to ‘Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to unlock’ – do this
- Enter your new password to login
- You can now update the password on your iphone (see below)
The Right Way – Password Must Be Changed Now
- If you login and are confronted with a box indicating that ‘You must change your password now’ – STOP, say NO and log off.
- You are returned to the Ctrl-Alt-Del page – press Ctrl-Alt-Del
- Before typing your password, click the blue-box in the bottom right hand corner, next to the red ‘shutdown’ button.
(If you don’t have a blue box, you’ll need to call us).
- You may be asked which connection to use, use your common sense
- Type your username and password in the box that comes up
- You will be logged into the laptop via the server
- You can now change your password when prompted
- You can now update the password on your iphone (see below)
The Wrong Way Un-Done
If you have already changed your password the wrong way, and find that you can’t access emails on your laptop or phone now, here’s how to fix it.
Option 1 – for SBS servers
- Connect to your Remote Web Workplace, something like https://remote.yourcompany.com
This may be similar to a link you have for web-mail, which may be https://mail.yourcompany.com/OWA – just ditch the OWA bit
- Login using your old server password – you will likely be prompted to change your password, but if not there is a link to do so
- Change the server password to match the one you’ve set on your laptop
- Check to make sure that you can now open Outlook correctly, you may need to type your password in Outlook again to connect it
- Once done, you can update your iphone (see below)
Option 2 – for non SBS users
I don’t think any Lansalot customers have non-SBS setups but here’s how anyway, and it will also work for SBS:
- Have the administrator reset your password on the server, so it is no longer expired. Ideally set it to the password you’ve set on your laptop
- Login to the laptop with the new password
- Connect your VPN, then continue from step 2/3 of “The Right Way – Password Expires In A Few Days”
Update your iPad/iPhone/Android
Once you have successfully updated your password on the server and your laptop, you need to let your phone know that you have done so. You may be prompted to enter the password; you may have been prompted previously and entered incorrectly.
iPhone / iPad:
- Go to Settings
- Go to Mail, Contacts, Calendars
- Tap on your main account – it may be called ‘Exchange’ or something else
- Tap on ‘Account you@yourcompany.com’
- Tap on the password box, and type your new password
- Tap ‘Done’ – your phone will check settings and return to the previous screen
- Tap the <Mail button (top left) and you are done.
Android:
- Open your Email app
- Open the menu, and choose Settings
- Tap ‘Microsoft Exchange Activesync’
- Tap on the ‘password’ box and type your new password
- Tap on ‘Save’
