Accounts and Sign-in

This page is also in the Courier wiki: https://github.com/rsjsoftwareltd/courier/wiki/Accounts-and-Sign-in

Courier has its own accounts. They are separate from Windows, from Active Directory and from every other RSJ product: signing in to one never signs you in to another.

The first administrator #

The first account is made in the browser on the server itself, once, when Courier has no accounts (Getting Started, Step 3). There is no default password.

Roles #

Administrator -- can send notices, sees everyone's history, and manages users, templates, the school name and logo, retention, the directory and updates.
Sender -- sees their own history only. Senders can send only to the audiences an administrator gives them.

Courier will not let you remove, disable or demote the last administrator, so there is always someone who can reach the settings.

Managing accounts #

General Settings -> Users lets an administrator add accounts, change a role, Reset password, Disable or Remove an account. A password reset, a disable or a removal signs that person out everywhere at once.

Everyone can change their own password under General Settings -> Users (the Change your password form at the foot of the page); it asks for the current one first and keeps only the session in use. Passwords are at least ten characters.

Two-factor sign-in is optional, account by account. Under General Settings -> Users each person has a Two-factor sign-in card. Press Set up two-factor sign-in, scan the code with an authenticator app on your phone (Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, Authy and others) or type the secret into it by hand, then enter the 6-digit code the app shows. Courier then shows eight recovery codes, once: keep them somewhere safe. Any one signs you in if you lose your phone, and each works only once.

After that, signing in asks for the password and then for a code from the app (or a recovery code). A code works once. Wrong codes count toward the same one-minute wait as wrong passwords. To turn it off you need your password and a current code (or a recovery code).

An administrator can see who has two-factor on in the Users table, and can press Reset two-factor for an account whose phone is lost; that person then signs in with their password alone until they set it up again.

Signing in and out #

A sign-in lasts up to eight hours. After repeated wrong passwords, Courier asks you to wait a minute before trying again. Signing out ends the session at once.

Not here yet #

Signing in to Courier with an Active Directory account and sign-in shared across RSJ products are not built. From another computer, open https://<server name or address>:8445 and sign in as usual; five wrong passwords lock that computer out of signing in for a minute. Administrators can limit the console to certain addresses under General Settings -> Access.

If every administrator is lost, Backup and Restore has the recovery command.