Computers, Labs and Wifi

McGill has computer services for all students. The technical support for all technology at the University is ICS - IT Customer Support. You can email them at customersupport.ist@mcgill.ca or call 514-398-3398 (there is a direct line to them from the telephones in the classrooms). When you contact ICS, you need to tell them your 9-digit McGill ID number. It is on your student card. Also, you can go to their Walk-in service desk in our building - 688 Sherbrooke West on the 2nd floor, room 285. You can also search for answers in McGill's IT Knowledge Base.

Minerva Login

Minerva is the basic computer system for everyone at McGill. Before you can do anything with computers at McGill, you have to log into Minerva. The first time you login, you need your 9-digit McGill ID number (on your acceptance letter, your McGill ID card, or your Blue Cross insurance card), and your Minvera PIN.

Minerva Login Access

Your Minvera PIN is 6 characters, and it includes letters and and numbers. The first time you login, it is your birthdate, in the form YYMMDD (year month day). So if you birthdate is February 14, 1996, then your initial Minerva PIN is 960214. If your birthdate is October 5, 1997, then your PIN will be 971005, and so on.

You need to do the first login to Minvera so you do many things - set security questions, choose a password for your McGill email and other things. Click here to download a pdf with all the login steps.

McGill Email

Your McGill Email Address will be in the form of firstname.lastname@mail.mcgill.ca. Be careful - look at your email closely to see if there is a number in it, for example taro.yamada2@mail.mcgill.ca. This is because there was another person with the same name at McGill University before you.

Your McGill email password will be 8 characters, and must include letters and numbers.

Your teacher will use this email to communicate with you, and your email address and password is your McGill username and password for logging in everywhere - including to wifi. The McGill email service gives you a 50 GB mailbox on Microsoft Office 365. You can access your email via the myMcGill portal or directly through the Office 365 Outlook Web App (OWA) at https://outlook.com/mcgill.ca. Sign in using your McGill Username and McGill Password.

MyCourses

Your English course at McGill is supported by MyCourses, which is the university's learning managagement system (LMS). Your teachers will use MyCourses for classwork, homework, online discussion forums, group projects, quizzes, surveys and assignments. You can use it to send emails to your classmates, see your grades and attendance, and see extra course material. Your username and password will give you access to MyCourses for two semesters after your last course at McGill finishes.

You can go directly to MyCourses at this address: https://mycourses2.mcgill.ca/

MyMcGill Portal

The MyMcGill portal is an easy way to access everthing you need: email, Minerva, MyCourses, the Library website, and lots of other McGill sites, all with one log in. To log into the MyMcGill portal, got to https://mymcgill.mcgill.ca

Wifi

There is wifi in all McGill buildings on campus, and in some outdoor areas. To use wifi on your smartphone, tablet or laptop computer, you need to look for thewpa.mcgill.ca network. The username is your McGill email address and the password is the same 8-character one. You will see another network called mcgill.ca, but it won't work.

If you are staying in McGill residences, the wifi is different: wpa.rez.mcgill.ca. It has a different username and password, and the monitors will help you with it.

Labs

All our computer labs are on the 12th floor of our building. To go to the computer labs, you go left from the elevators, through the glass doors. You can't use the door on the right side - it has an alarm, and is for emergencies only.

If you are with your teacher, he or she will open the door of the lab to let you in. There is a public lab (1271), that is open from 9:00 AM in the morning to 9:00 PM at night. To use the public lab, ask the lab monitor who is sitting at the counter in the hallway. There is a uPrint photocopier/printer near lab 1299.

Printing

All over the University, there are uPrint machines, and in our buildings, you will find them on all our floors. Every student has an account. You can log into the machine with your McGill email and password. You can use these machines to make copies, to print from the labs, and to scan (it sends the scan to your email).

Please note, your student account gets charged each time you print or copy. It costs 6.5¢ per page for black and white. Scanning to your email is free - it sends the scan as a pdf. To print from the computer lab, choose the printer that is called "uPrint Mono (PS2)".