Computing Accounts

All Students: Run getacct now!

You must run https://www.cs.ubc.ca/getacct/ before you can use your new CWLid@students.cs.ubc.ca account. You can do this as soon as you are registered for a CPSC course.

Accounts are provided for students enrolled in any Computer Science course and for students majoring in Computer Science. Accounts are created based on information supplied by the UBC Registrar. Therefore, students who enroll late may have to wait several days after registering before their accounts become available. Only under very special circumstances will accounts be created for students who are not registered. Students must be able to provide a student number and proof of registration or a note from the instructor.

Account Activation

Activate Your Account

Students must activate their account.

Students, registered in a Computer Science course, must activate their account before it can be used. If you have taken a Computer Science previously, your old account will be reused, otherwise you will be using a new account. Account access is normally available by the 3rd Monday of the month prior to the start of term, which are the 3rd Mondays of April, August, and December.

CPSC Major, Honours, and combined degree students may apply for an undergrad account extension for terms they are not enrolled in at least one CPSC course. This should be done BEFORE your account access expires.

For reading about Account Expiry and Removal and Account Regulations, please read the appropriate pages on My CS.

End of term FAQ

Find out what happens to your account and files at the end of the term by following this link.

Backup and Restore

In the event you delete a file you can get it back. The device used to backup home directories is called a Netapp. The NetApp performs automatic backups (snapshots) of home directories, on the hour. The snapshots are located in /home/.snapshot and are read-only. For more information, see restoring your files.

Disk Quota

CS undergraduate accounts are assigned a disk quota of 1 GB. To learn how to monitor your disk usage see disk quotas.

Email

All accounts come with standard email. You must monitor your email account, as that is the primary way that the department will communicate with you. You can forward your email to another account if you wish. For more information see CS email accounts

Printing

The CS department supports printing for all OS platforms.  Printing in the department is charged to users. 

Web Pages

Every CS ugrad account has a personal public website. Students should review the account policies to ensure their website is appropriate. The Department of Computer Science reserves the rights to remove any inappropriate web pages. For more information see Setting up a personal website.