Q: I'm a private web developer. How do I get a guest account to logon to the MIT network?
Answer
The MIT-affiliated faculty or staff member with whom you are working can agree to sponsor you for a guest account. To do so your sponsor should fill out the sponsored guest account form at the bottom of the linked page.
You sponsor will be asked to provide the following information about you:
- Your name
- Your MIT ID number, if you have one, or your birthday (MM/DD, no year) if you don't yet have an MIT ID number
- Name and email address of sponsor
Notes:
- Guest Account status may be granted to individuals who are not MIT undergraduate or graduate students, MIT faculty, or MIT on-campus staff, and are working on Institute projects.
- A current MIT faculty or staff member must agree to be the sponsor for the account. The sponsor must be accessible via email, and will need to provide his/her electronic address on the form.
- The account will expire annually and the sponsor will be contacted to see if it should be extended.
- A sponsored guest account is intended for individuals who need access to MIT services to participate in Institute related work.
- A sponsored guest account should not be requested when the individual's needs can easily be met by commercial or public alternatives. Email and word processing are both available via other services, and therefore are not good reasons for a sponsored guest account. The ongoing maintenance of Athena mailing lists is also not a valid reason for an account. Accounts can be granted for temporary use by web developers on specific terminal projects but not for on going maintenance of web pages.
- The account holder may not use Athena software or other Athena services in ways that violate MIT license restrictions or use the system for any commercial or sponsored research purposes. The Athena Rules of Use must also be followed.