i6 Services: FAQ

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Table of Contents

Q. "I don't know whether my CIMS account was set up correctly/is working properly. How can I check?"

Q. "I forgot my password, what do I do?"

Q. "I already know my password, but how do I change it?"

Q. "I think I have the right password, but every time I try to connect to i6, it says permission denied."

Q. "When I try to access my site, it tells me 'Access forbidden!'."

Q. "I accidentally deleted my public_html folder. What do I do?"

Q. "When I attempt to SSH to i6, I get a message about a public RSA key problem, and can't connect."

Q. "Which SFTP Clients would you recommend using?" 

Q: "How do I connect using FileZilla?" 

Q: "How do I connect using Cyberduck?" 

Q: "How do I connect using Fetch?" 

Q. "How do I connect using WinSCP?"

Q. "Despite all the settings being correct, my SFTP program such as FileZilla will not connect."

Q. "My site itself (not my i6 account) has a password on it and I forgot what it is."

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Q. "I don't know whether my CIMS account was set up correctly/is working properly. How can I check?"

A. We have a flowchart outlining steps to ensure your account is functioning properly. Please follow the steps as shown.

The most common problems are:

1. Account activation email went to your NYU email spam folder: try going to the link you would have been sent, which is https://cims.nyu.edu/webapps/password 
2. You had an account from a previous semester (in which case you do NOT get an account activation email) and have forgotten the credentials: see "I forgot my password..."
3. You are trying to connect to the CIMS servers using FileZilla, Cyberduck or some other SFTP client and are not succeeding: Test with a simple SSH client such as Terminal or Command line first. See the flowchart linked above or your instructor if you're unsure how this works.
   • First, confirm that your i6 account is working as expected by performing an ssh command. Open a Terminal or Command Line window, and execute the following command: ssh NETID@i6.cims.nyu.edu, where "NETID" is your NetID in all lower-case letters. If you perform this ssh command and are prompted with Multi Factor Authentication (Duo), then we can confirm that your i6 account is functioning as expected.

Q. "I forgot my password, what do I do?"

A. Visit our password reset page for instructions to reset your password.

Q. "I already know my password, but how do I change it?"

A. You may find instructions for changing your account password and other useful account management tips here.

Q. "I think I have the right password, but every time I try to connect to i6, it says permission denied."

A. If you're on a Mac or Linux, be sure that you are including your NetID in your ssh command: ssh NETID@i6.cims.nyu.edu, where NETID is your NetID in all lowercase letters. Secondly, make sure that you're connecting to i6.cims.nyu.edu and NOT access.cims.nyu.edu. If this ssh command still fails, then please attempt a password reset.

Q. "When I try to access my site, it tells me 'Access forbidden!'."

A. 99.9% of the time this is a Unix permissions issue that you can resolve yourself. See our Interact page for a brief look at setting permissions, as well as a hint to get you started with the permissions of you index.html file. This issue can also arise if you have content in your public_html directory that isn't structured correctly (e.g., with an index.html at the top level) or if you mistakenly move, rename, or delete and incorrectly recreate your public_html folder. Your public_html folder is actually a symlink to a different directory -- see the next frequently asked question for more information.

Q. "I accidentally deleted my public_html folder. What do I do?"

A. Your public_html "folder" is actually a symbolic link in your home directory to your web directory. If you've deleted this link, you can recreate it by using SSH to i6 and running the following command: "cd; ln -s /web/NETID public_html" where NETID is your NetID in lowercase letters. If you've inadvertently created public_html as an actual folder, you can delete the folder and its contents (you will be prompted before deletions), and recreate the link, by running "cd; rm -ir public_html; ln -s /web/NETID public_html". 

A correctly working public_html folder will be in /home/<username>/public_html, and look like the screenshot below. You can get this view while ssh'ed to your home directory on i6 by running the "ls -l" command. Notice the "l" at the leftmost position of the folder permissions, and the arrow pointing to the location to which the symlink goes:

In comparison, the image below is what you would see if you made a public_html folder that is NOT correctly symlinked. The "d" in the leftmost position of the directory permissions indicates that this is a directory rather than a link, and there is no symlink arrow:

Q. "When I attempt to SSH to i6, I get a message about a public RSA key problem, and can't connect."

A. If you connected to i6 in a past semester, it's possible the i6 hardware has changed since then, which could have resulted in a new RSA key. An RSA key is essentially something to identify a remote machine so that you know you are connecting to the machine you intend to, and not a machine that has hijacked the hostname of the machine. You can confirm the legitimacy of the machine you're attempting to connect to as actually being i6 by checking our Secure Connection Verification page and looking at the current fingerprint value for i6.

To get around this error, you will need to open up your "known_hosts" file and delete the lines relating to i6. The known_hosts file is usually found in the ~/.ssh/ subdirectory. On Macs it's usually something like /Users/your_local_username/.ssh/known_hosts; Linux is similar. So from a window in the Terminal application on Mac or Linux, you could execute the following (all commands require hitting "Enter" to complete) to find the .ssh directory, open known_hosts, and delete the outdated RSA key entry:

cd ~
(you should now be in the home directory of whatever user account you've logged in with on your computer)
ls -lah
(you should now see a directory called .ssh in the output, which contains the contents of your home directory)
cd .ssh
(for the next command, vim is a text editor: you can edit known_hosts in any text editor of your choice, which may use different commands)
vim known_hosts
(using the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard, move to the line that starts with i6.cims.nyu.edu)
dd
(you should have just deleted the line with the i6 server RSA key)
:wq
(this writes out the updated file and quits vim)

If you don't connect to other services besides i6, it is safe to remove all the content of this file to start fresh. You can also delete the file entirely; a new one will be generated the next time you ssh to the server.

Q. "Which SFTP Clients would you recommend using?" 

To reiterate, before using an SFTP Client, please ensure that you can perform the following SSH command in Terminal/Command Line using your CIMS credentials, where "netID" is your netID in lowercase letters:

ssh netID@i6.cims.nyu.edu 

If you enter the above command and are prompted for Duo 2-Factor authentication, then your i6 account will function as expected. In the event that your course or instructor has asked you to specifically use an SFTP Client, please refer to the following recommendations. 

For Mac, we would recommend the following applications: 

• FileZilla
• Cyberduck
• Fetch

For Windows, we would recommend the following applications:

• FileZilla
• Cyberduck
• WinSCP

For Linux machines, we would recommend using the following application:

• FileZilla

Q: "How do I connect using FileZilla?" 

Please note that these instructions work on Mac, Windows, and Linux machines. 

1. Open FileZilla
2. Go to the "File" tab. Select "Site Manager..."  
3. In the Site Manager window, click on "New site". Enter a name for your New Site, such as "i6". For "Protocol:" select "SFTP". For "Host:" enter "i6.cims.nyu.edu". For "Port:" enter "22". For "Logon Type:" select "Interactive". For "User:" please leave blank. 
4. Click on the "Transfer Settings" tab. Select "Limit number of simultaneous connections". Set the "Maximum number of connections:" field to "1". Click on "Connect".
5. You may be prompted whether or not you would like to save your password -- choose your preference. We do not recommend using the "Master password" option. Click "OK". 
6. You will be prompted to enter your username. Please use your CIMS account username. Click "OK".
7. You may be prompted with an "Unknown host key" window. Just allow and click "OK". 
8. You will be prompted to enter your password. Please use your CIMS account credentials. Click "OK".
9. You will be prompted for MultiFactor Authentication (Duo). After correctly entering your credentials, you will see a "Success" screen.

Q: "How do I connect using Cyberduck?" 

Please note that these instructions work on both Mac and Windows machines. 

1. Open Cyberduck 
2. Go to the "Bookmark" tab on top. Select "New Bookmark". 
3. In the window that opens, select "SFTP". For "Server:" enter "i6.cims.nyu.edu". For "Port:" enter "22". Please leave "Username:" and "Password:" blank. Exit out of this window.
4. You should now see your bookmark. Double click on it. 
5. You will be prompted to enter your Uername and Password. Please enter your CIMS i6 account credentials. Click on "Login". 
6. If this is your first time performing an SFTP connection with Cyberduck, then you will be prompted with an "Unknown fingerprint" window. Click on "Allow".  
7. You will be prompted for MultiFactor Authentication (Duo). After correctly entering your credentials, you will be connected. 

Q: "How do I connect using Fetch?" 

To connect using Fetch on a Mac machine, please refer to the following instructions: 

Please note that Fetch is free only for the first 15 days of usage. However, you can apply for a free Fetch license as a student using this link.

1. Open the Fetch application. Click on "Enter Serial Number" to enter your Fetch free license. 
2. You will be prompted to make a "New Connection". For "Hostname:" enter "i6.cims.nyu.edu".  In the "Connect using:" dropdown menu, select "SFTP". Click "OK". 
3. You will be prompted for MultiFactor Authentication (Duo). After correctly entering your credentials, you will be connected. 

Q. "How do I connect using WinSCP?"

To connect using WinSCP on a Windows machine, please refer to the following instructions:

1. Launch the WinSCP application. You should be prompted with a login window. 
2. Set the "File Protocol:" to "SFTP". For "Host name:" please enter "i6.cims.nyu.edu". For "Port Number:" enter "22". Please leave "User name:" and "Password:" blank for now. Click on "Login".
3. You will be prompted for your Username and then your password. Please enter your CIMS account credentials. 
4. You will be prompted for MultiFactor Authentication (Duo). After correctly entering your credentials, you will see a "Success" screen. Hit "Continue" and you will be connected via SFTP. 

Q. "Despite all the settings being correct, my SFTP program such as FileZilla will not connect."

A. As indicated above, check for an RSA key in your known_hosts file, delete the lines regarding i6 if they exist, and then try again.

Q. "My site itself (not my i6 account) has a password on it and I forgot what it is."

A. Your site most likely has a .htaccess file in place, which allows one to control who can or can't access the site. This .htaccess file would most likely be located in your web directory accessible via /home/NETID/public_html/.htaccess. If this file exists, you can modify it to your liking, or just delete it. Please consult Google for basic .htaccess usage.

Note that some instructors include the existence of an .htaccess file as part of your curriculum. When in doubt, ask your instructor if it is important to him/her that your website be restricted by a .htaccess file.