Congratulations on your acceptance to the University of Waterloo! Before you arrive on campus you can learn about your:

• Email Account
• Nexus Account
• Printing Account

Mail and computing accounts can be activated a couple of weeks before the term begins, usually after tuition is paid. If you receive the error: Please visit the Arts Consulting Office for assistance, please try again closer to the beginning of the term.

Email Account

You will need your Quest/WatIAM password (two names for the same password) to activate your email and Nexus (computer lab) accounts. If you have already signed up for classes, then the password you used for that is your Quest/WatIAM password.

If you don't have a Quest/WatIAM password yet, you can set it from:
https://watiam.uwaterloo.ca/idm/user/login.jsp

When on the WatIAM site, click on Need to activate your account? at the bottom of the screen.

Make sure you keep this password safe. Passwords for personal accounts should never be shared.

Activating your Email account

Go to https://mailservices.uwaterloo.ca/imap/imap-account.php and enter your userID and Quest/WatIAM password in the appropriate boxes. Click on the Login button.  Your account has now been created.

Your email address is userid@mailservices.uwaterloo.ca and your password is the same as your Quest/WatIAM password.  If you change your Quest/WatIAM password then your mailservices password changes as well.  Also, the only way to change your mailservices password is to change your WatIAM password. 

You can access your email online at https://mailservices.uwaterloo.ca/webmail or www.mywaterloo.ca, or through a mail client such as Thunderbird or Outlook (login with your Quest/WatIAM userid and password).

• Your email address will be userid@mailservices.uwaterloo.ca
• In order for mail sent to userid@uwaterloo.ca to be directed to your userid
  @mailservices.uwaterloo.ca account see Step 3. Reset your forwarding e-mail address

For more information on your mailservices account visit IST's mailservices page.

How to use GMail instead is information on how to forward your campus email to your Gmail account

Nexus Account

As an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Arts, you are entitled to set up a Nexus account which will allow you to use Windows workstations across campus. First, you need to set up a Nexus account, which can be done at any Nexus computer, including any of the labs in Arts:

• PAS building (rooms 1080, 1098, and 1237)
• HH buliding (room 236)

OR

online from any computer with Internet access (see instructions below).

Activating your Nexus account

1. On any computer with Internet access, go to Nexus and E-mail Account Creation for Students
2. Enter your UW userID in the UWuserid box (Note: this is not your 8-digit student number; it is usually a combination of your first initial and your last name) and enter your Quest password in the Quest/WatIAM password box. Press the Go button, and write down the password given. Click on the Create your Account button, and this will create your Nexus account in a few seconds.
3. You can now login to Nexus computers on campus with your userID and the password you were just issued.

Note:  After activating your mailservices email account and Nexus account, you should verify that your email entry in WatIAM is correct.  Login to WatIAM and click on Update Profile.  Make sure that next to Email: your mailservices email or a personal email account of yours, such as hotmail or gmail, is listed.  When an email is sent to userid@uwaterloo.ca it will be forwarded to the email address in your WatIAM Profile.  So it is important to make sure your email is listed correct or you will lose emails, some from your professors and the Registrar's Office.

For further help with Nexus, please see our Nexus Help and Support page.

Printing Account

There are two printers in the Arts Faculty that are available for students to use.  They are located in PAS 1099 and HH 236.

To be able to print from these printers you need to set up a printing account. See IST's printing service page for full details.

For further help with printing, please see our Printing Help and Support page.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you're still having trouble when the term starts. You can also come to the help desk when you arrive on campus and we can help you out and tell you more about our computer labs and other services.

Our office is in PAS 1077, our campus telephone extension is 33190, and our email address is acohelp@uwaterloo.ca.