Want to be able to log in to your GroupWise email from home? You're not alone. This is one of the most commonly asked questions from GroupWise users. Evidently people can't get enough of it during work hours.

Here are a couple of typical questions we've received of late. This is a consistent theme -- so if you are a GroupWise Admin, you may want to proactively reach out to your users and let them know how to do this. (Not that we mind answering it... )

Q: I use groupwise @ work to access my emails from my employer. Is there a way I can access it from home as well? As I'm waiting for a important email to come through & didn't want to wait til Monday when I was back @ work to see it....

Q: My school district uses GroupWise. How can I access GroupWise at home?

Here is the scoop.

You have two options. You can either download the GroupWise Windows Client onto your home machine (if you are a Windows user), or you can use the WebAccess client to get your email via your web browser. Let's talk about both of those options.

GroupWise Windows Client

First you may want to check with your GroupWise system administrator to make sure that GroupWise is configured to work outside the company firewall. OR, you can just give this a try and you'll find out for yourself if it's configured for home use. It won't hurt anything to try.

1. Download the GroupWise Windows client on your home machine.
Note: You need to install either the same version as they are running at work, or an earlier (older) version. For example, if you are running GW2012 at work, you can download the GW7, GW8 or GW2012 clients and they will all work at home. However if you are running GW7 at work, you cannot download either the GW8 or GW2012 clients. And if you are using GW8 at work, you can't download the GW2012 client.

• GroupWise 2012
  
• GroupWise 8
  
• GroupWise 7
  

Also -- don't worry about the fact that the 2012 download is listed as an "Evaluation." The Client has no limitations on it these days, so it will work fine and forever even though it says it's an evaluation version.

2. When prompted, enter the IP address or DNS for the post office your account resides in and the port that it is configured on.

Examples

• dns = mycompany.com
  
• port = 1677
  
• ip address = 137.65.1.1
  

You can easily look up that info when you're using GroupWise at work. Just click Help > About GroupWise. It will list the IP address and Port number. Jot them down and enter them in when you are installing the Windows client at home.

Here's how you enter this info:




3. Once you've correctly entered your post office and port info, you'll get the normal login screen where you will enter your network username and password just as you do at work.

WebAccess

If you are planning on using WebAccess, you will need the IP address or DNS name for the WebAccess server.

You can try:

• gmail.mycompany.com/gw/webacc
  
• or < ipaddress >/gw/webacc
  

If your company has not configured GroupWise to be used outside the firewall, you won't be able to complete the processes listed above. The Windows Client will return an error that says something like "Unable to reach TCP/IP address." The WebAccess client will say that the post office is unavailable, or it may give you a "404 Page Not Found" error.

If that happens, simply call the Help Desk when you're back at work, and ask them if they would please configure GroupWise to be accessed outside the firewall. We don't know of too many organizations who would NOT want their employees to be able to work remotely.