Essential Information

• What is Waterloo Polaris?
• Computer Use Statement
• Obtaining/Extending Your Account
• Finding and Booking Terminals
• Getting Help: System Consultants

Tutorial Information

• Getting Started
• Printing
• Accessing E-mail and News
• Web Browsing and Publishing
• File and Printer Sharing
• Connecting From Home

Waterloo Polaris Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Waterloo Polaris FAQ

Links to Supplemental Information from the Faculties

• Faculty of Applied Health Sciences
• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Mathematics
• Faculty of Science

---

What is Waterloo Polaris?

Waterloo Polaris is the local area network of PC workstations that provides the computing environment for the majority of undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo. It also serves the administrative and academic support needs of many faculty and staff in the faculties of Engineering, Science, Arts and Applied Health Sciences.

Waterloo Polaris made its debut in the fall academic term of 1997, replacing its predecessor, the Watstar PC network, over a transition period of one year. Watstar served the Faculty of Engineering since the fall of 1984 and grew into one of the largest campus microcomputer networks in North America with more than 1900 workstations and over 17000 active user accounts. Watstar used proprietary PC-based server technology and a DOS/Windows 3.1 user environment to provide a wide variety of software ranging from word processing to specialized scientific computing software.

Waterloo Polaris builds on the existing infrastructure developed by the Watstar network. The client workstations run Windows95, and the server architecture has been expanded to include increased reliance on Unix-based servers. Like Watstar, Waterloo Polaris provides for the connection of a large number of PCs to make use of common software and hardware resources, while maintaining the network security necessary in a student computing environment.

Unlike stand-alone or traditionally networked Windows95 computers, software is maintained and distributed from central servers with the local workstations containing only protected copies of the most commonly used software on their internal hard disks. All users= files and any customizations to users= Windows95 working environments are stored centrally on network file servers, allowing users to move about freely. Waterloo Polaris makes use of a variety of Watstar, Unix, NT, and Network Appliance servers in order to provide a user environment which is a highly integrated interface to the various network services available through the wide variety of computing platforms which exist at UW.

(Back to Document Index)

UW Computer Use Statement

All users of computing facilities at UW should be aware of the Statement on Use of University of Waterloo Computing and Network Resources.

Your Waterloo Polaris account with its associated privileges is provided to support academic-related uses. Some specific examples of things you are not allowed to do are:

• Monopolizing resources or otherwise disrupting others' work
• Sending e-mail or posting news anonymously or under a false name
• Lending your account or giving anyone else your password
• Accessing someone else's files or account without permission
• Using the computer for conducting unauthorized commercial business
• Viewing sexually explicit or other potentially offensive materials in public labs
• Playing games at any time
• Conducting any illegal activities such as
  • Sending harassing e-mail
  • Participating in chain letters or pyramid schemes
  • Damaging, tampering with, or removing equipment

Some activities that are acceptable are:

• Any course-related work
• Sending and receiving personal e-mail
• Constructiing a personal Web page where the service is available
• Recreational news reading and Web browsing when public computer labs are not busy

Each account holder is solely responsible for the use or misuse of his or her computing privileges. Remember to change your password, keep it secret, and do not share your account. Disciplinary actions will be taken in cases of abuse. To report abuses, contact your local computing help desk.

(Back to Document Index)

Obtaining an Account

A Waterloo Polaris "account" actually consists of several accounts, all linked by a common password and storing files on a central file server. Depending on the resouces supplied by your faculty, accounts associated with Waterloo Polaris include email, Web, and general-purpose Unix accounts, along with access to PC workstations.

Only registered students are allowed to create a Waterloo Polaris account using the automated system. To appear in the Registrar's database, you must have paid your fees. If you are not a registered student but were registered in the preceeding term, you can still use the automated account creation system. Otherwise, if you are not a student and you require a Waterloo Polaris account, please visit your faculty consulting office to see what possibilities are available to you.

Registered students in all participating faculties, except Mathematics, may obtain accounts from any Waterloo Polaris station by using the scratch Web form, available from the log-in screen. You will be asked some questions to verify who you are.

The automated account creation and extension facility uses data from the Registrar's database. It takes at least 24 hours after you register (pay your fees) for your information to become available to the account creation software.

In the Faculty of Mathematics, only students taking particular courses are issued Waterloo Polaris accounts. Please see the supplemental information provided by the Mathematics faculty for details.

Extending an Existing Account

Once your account is created it will remain while you are a student in the same faculty. Remember that your "account" actually consists of several accounts, all linked by a common password and centralized file storage on a faculty file server. Currently, your ability to log in to Waterloo Polaris PC workstations continues to have an expiry date attached to it. If that expiry occurs, your stored files are still safe, since they will remain on the central file server, and you will still be able to access your email and Web files via the Internet. If your account has expired and you need to use the Waterloo Polaris PC labs, you can re-establish (extend) your log-in privileges through the scratch Web form, as long as you have been registered for on-campus courses in any of: the previous term, the current term, the upcoming term. (Registration data for the upcoming term is usually available in the two weeks before the term begins and is updated daily for the the first few weeks after a term begins.) There is no charge for extending your access to the PC labs.

Some faculties also continue your accounts for a "transition" period after you finish your studies.

The "Kickoff" Log-in I.D.

Occasionally, if your Waterloo Polaris workstation crashes or is otherwise rebooted without going throught the log-off procedure, your account may not get logged off, and you will not be able to log back on again. You can log in as user I.D. kickoff to remotely log yourself off of Waterloo Polaris.
N.B. There is a 20 minute delay before the scratch facility will allow you to log yourself off.

(Back to Document Index)

Finding and Booking Terminals

Most Waterloo Polaris computer labs are available to anyone with a valid account. However, please be aware that funding for the various labs originates at the department or faculty level, so there are some exceptions to this open use initiative. Students should give priority of use to the equipment provided by their home department or faculty.

At the end of a school term (especially the last 3 weeks) you may find it difficult to locate a free Waterloo Polaris station. Please note that it is poor etiquette either to reset a workstation which someone has left temporarily unattended or to leave a workstation unattended for an inordinate period of time.

The locations of Waterloo Polaris workstations are listed in the tables below. Some labs are now converted to Waterloo Nexus (Windows 2000), as noted.