Account

At the Department of Physics (D-PHYS) you usually have two accounts:

  • ETH Account: Provided to all ETHZ members
  • D-PHYS Account: Provided to users with D-PHYS affiliation

Please read our account policy page on how to obtain and extend D-PHYS accounts. All services inside the Department of Physics use the same login and password, called "D-PHYS account" or "physics account".

ETH Account

The ETH Account is given by the ETH Rektorat to every student and by ETH human resources to every employee at ETHZ. You should get this login and password by regular mail to your home address. Please ask your secretary in case of problems.

This account is required to access your @ethz.ch (or @student.ethz.ch) email, the wireless network, VPN, licensed software via IT Shop and several other ETH-wide services. Just to make things even more interesting, there are two passwords associated with each ETH Account: the LDAP/AD password and the Radius password. The following list gives you an idea of which one to use:

Service Link / Docu Password Description
Network network Radius Wired network
Wireless wireless Radius Wireless (Wi-Fi) network
VPN vpn, webvpn Radius Virtual Private Network
Printing printing LDAP Web-/network printing
Main Website ethz.ch LDAP ETH Websites (*.ethz.ch)
ETHIS (SAP) ethis.ethz.ch LDAP ETH Info and Support System
ETH E-Mail mail, webmail LDAP @ethz.ch, @student.ethz.ch
IT Shop itshop LDAP Licensed Software Catalog
HPC Clusters id sis hpc LDAP EULER, Leonhard
Password password LDAP Set password, account info
ID/ITS Helpdesk faq, services, help LDAP ETH Account specific help

The passwords can be changed at password.ethz.ch.

Note: Some ETH services need MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication).

D-PHYS Account

The D-PHYS Account (or Physics Account) is given by ISG to students and members of the Department of Physics, either working for the administration or a particular institute (including guests) and to other departments receiving services provided by ISG D-PHYS.

This account is required to access your @phys.ethz.ch mail, network file storage, provides the login for our workstations, servers, websites and several other services:

Service Link / Docu Description
Host Login workstations Managed workstations
SSH Login ssh, computing Managed servers
Windows Login windows terminal server Windows Terminal Server
D-PHYS E-Mail mail, webmail @phys.ethz.ch
File Storage storage Personal home, Group shares
Groups groups Group/Access management
Backups backups Daily backups
Web services web Websites (*.phys.ethz.ch)
Public html homepage howto Personal/Group Homepages
Chat chat, #helpdesk chat room Matrix/Element chat server
Calendar calendar Calendar, address book
Password password Set password, account info
ISG Helpdesk faq, services, help IT Support for the D-PHYS

The password can be changed at account.phys.ethz.ch.

Account settings

Is the D-PHYS account the same as the ETH account?

No. There is a physics account and an ETH account. Not everyone has both of them and different things need different logins.

What about email?

As a D-PHYS employee, you will also get access to a D-PHYS email address. It's often easiest to create a forward from, or to, the ETH address.

How to recover a lost password?

In case you forgot your password, we can reset it and give you a new one. For obvious security reasons this cannot be done over the phone or by email. You need to come to our offices and bring an ID card. To help you create secure passwords you can easily remember and how to handle them securely, please see How to handle passwords.

Can I keep the account after I leave the D-PHYS or ETH?

See account expiration.