Instructional Computing Services (ICS) Accounts

This page contains information about ICS accounts.

Overview of ICS Accounts

All students, staff, and faculty automatically receive a free Instructional Computing Services (ICS) account to access the equipment and software in the ICS computer labs across campus. To begin using your account, you need to activate it as described below under "Activating your Account."

ICS Labs

ICS labs are located at:

ICS has approximately 500 machines (Macintosh and Windows) dispersed among its eight labs. Each lab offers a wide variety of commercial and course software, projection systems, printers, zip drives, and super drives. Black and white laser printouts are available for 10 cents per page, color printouts for 40 cents per page, and are billed to your Student Accounts Receivable (SAR) account.

All labs are staffed by knowledgeable consultants to assist with equipment and software. The labs are handicapped-accessible and are open convenient hours, including Sundays until midnight. For a listing of lab hours, please see the main Instructional Computing Services page.

Note that classes are sometimes held in ICS labs, making them temporarily unavailable for general use.

Activating Your Account

To begin using your ICS account, you need to set a password for it by doing the following:

  1. Go to http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/services/password/ You'll be prompted to enter your Network ID (NetID) and NetID password to access this web page. For more information about what you're NetID is, see "Your NetID".

  2. Select Instructional Computing Services Password by clicking in the box to the left. Then, enter your new password twice: once under Password and once under Verify. Your ICS password must be different from your NetID password. For ideas on how to pick an effective password, see the Tips for Creating and Protecting Your Passwords.

  3. Click Continue. A new page will open to tell you if your password was successfully changed. If the program found a problem with your password, it will explain the problem and allow you to try a new password. Once you've successfully set a password, your account will be activated and available for use immediately.

Account Policies

Your login and password serve as your identity within the campus computing system and control access to sensitive personal information. Because of the potential for harm, it's very important that you never let anyone else use your account, login, or password — not even your parents, siblings, friends, or roommates. Any sharing is against campus computing policy and could result in losing your account privileges. A complete guide to the University's computing policies is located at: http://www.cio.uiuc.edu/policies.html

Help with Your Account

Instructional Computing Services
phone: (217) 265-7483
email: suggest@ics.uiuc.edu
web site: http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/ics/

Help Desk
phone: (217) 244-7000 or (800) 531-2531
email: consult@illinois.edu
web site: http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/help/