Password Management

The first step for users using the Windows client to access Vitalware is to log in to the server. The familiar Login dialog box allows a user to specify their:

  • username
  • password
  • service to which to connect
  • group to use (optional)

The information entered into the Login dialog box is transmitted to the Vitalware server for authentication. In particular, the username and password are checked against a database containing username and password combinations for all persons who are allowed to access the system. Vitalware itself does not store any username / password pairs but relies on external databases to authenticate users.

These external databases are available through a number of sources:

As you can see, there are a number of alternatives available for registering Vitalware users and their passwords. In general, each institution will have a policy dictating which of these sources should be used for user authentication.

Vitalware implements three mechanisms for determining whether a username / password combination is correct: