some explanation of the parameters via man 5 checkpw and passwd -h.

--

You will have multiple passwords, depending on your needs. See
http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/grad/ for an overview.  At minimum you
should know about:

WATIAM:

WatIAM is used for authentication to the wireless network and other UW
systems.
Go to http://watiam.uwaterloo.ca/ to change this password


GENERAL CS PASSWORD:

   general.cs.uwaterloo.ca is a generic name that will redirect to a
server in the collection.  See http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/general/
for details about the servers.

To change this password, use ssh to connect to a cpu server:
ie, cpu102.cs.uwaterloo.ca, cpu104.cs.uwaterloo.ca  and use the
passwd  command to change it.

    * Your password must contain a mixture of at least 3 types of characters: 
        i) upper case letters; 
        ii) lower case letters; 
        iii) numbers; and 
        iv) symbols.
    * it must be 7 or 8 characters in length (additional characters are ignored).
    * it must not have more than 4 letters or 4 numbers in a row.
    * It must not have only one different character than a dictionary word or look like a postal-code.
    * it must not match your old password. 
    * Illegal characters include # or @

See http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/grad/ to learn more.

-- DanielAllen - 19 Oct 2009