Account Activation:
An important step in starting your studies
On this page, we explain how the accounts at TU Darmstadt are connected and how you can activate them. You should definitely follow the steps, because you will need the accounts and have to receive official mails.
Understanding the difference between HRZ and ISP
The Hochschulrechenzentrum (abbr. HRZ) provides the IT infrastructure at TU Darmstadt. This includes Wi-Fi (eduroam), VPN access, TUCaN, the Athena card (you should apply for it as soon as possible) and computer pools with Windows clients. See the overview page for further services.
Additionally, there is the group Infrastruktur und studentischer Poolservice (abbr. ISP) which offers further services within the department of computer science. This includes computer pools with Linux clients and SSH access. You can find more information on the Wiki. Note that the ISP was formerly known as Rechnerbetriebsgruppe (abbr. RBG) and the abbreviation is still in use, so don't be confused.
You have two distinct accounts for HRZ and ISP but they have one thing in common: the username. The username is your TU-ID which typically looks similar to xy42juhu. Beside this, the two accounts are independent of each other and you may use different passwords. Each student at the TU Darmstadt has an HRZ account while ISP accounts are only intended for students with computer science subjects.
If you have no own computer with Internet access available for the following account activation, you can use the guest account on the ISP pool clients within the departmental building. Username: "gast", Password: "gast".
The HRZ Account
Account activation and how to obtain your TU-ID
You should have gotten your student ID card along with your matriculation letter (example). On this letter you can find an activation code which you should enter on the activation site. There, you can set your HRZ password and receive a TU-ID (similar to xy42juhu). You should write down your TU-ID since it is your username for both accounts.
If you didn't receive a matriculation letter so far, unfortunately you will have to wait until you receive the letter.
You can change your password or reconstruct it in the IDM protal.
If you encounter other problems, please contact the HRZ service.
Configure your HRZ mail address
During the HRZ account activation, you should have gotten an e-mail address ending in @stud.tu-darmstadt.de. This address is used to send university-related mails to you.
Forwarding of TUCaN messages
From time to time, you will receive messages via TUCaN. To make sure you read these messages, yous should have them forwarded to your e-mail address. To do so, log in into TUCaN and check the checkbox under Service -> Personal Data -> Change -> "Forward messages to uni-mail-account?". Then save the settings.
ISP account activation
You can activate your ISP account on the support page after you logged in with your HRZ login data (single sign-on). For the ISP account, the username will be (again) your TU-ID. You can set the password during the registration process. The support website is also used to reactivate your account in case it expired (once per semester), to reset your password, and store an SSH key for remote login. After the registration process, you should be able to log in into the pool clients using the ISP login data.
The creation of your ISP account didn't work because your HRZ e-mail was not automatically selected? Please make sure you confirmed your HRZ e-mail address as described above. Wait a few minutes and try again. If it still doesn't work, please contact the student service center in room C119.
If you want to change your password, you can log on to a pool client, open a terminal and use the passwd command. Type in your old password and two times your new one. Don't be confused, Linux won't show stars or bullets when typing passwords.
Configure your ISP mail address
In addition to the ISP account, you can also receive an additional e-mail address (TU-ID@rbg.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de). Since 2024, however, this is only created on request. You can find further information and instructions in the wiki.
Further information
You should have configured the most important accounts and e-mail addresses now. If you are interested in additional services provided by the HRZ or ISP, you can browse their websites.