Did you know that even if you're away from your office, you don't need to be away from your email? GroupWise offers a web access facility that means you can download your mail from anywhere in the world using a web browser. Keeping tabs on your mailbox can be an excellent way to make sure you don't face a mountain of email when you get back: check in every couple of days, if you can, and delete mail which isn't specifically relevant to you. It's also great to be able to catch important email and forward it on to someone who can deal with it while you're away.

The procedure for getting your mail online is very simple:

1. Before you leave, create a password on your GroupWise account. To do this, select Tools/Options/Security on your GroupWise menu.
2. Make sure your password is secure to prevent anybody from hacking into your mailbox. A secure password should be at least six characters long and should NOT be a word that appears in any dictionary. Preferably it should contain at least two letters and at least two numbers, and a mixture of upper and lower case letters and punctuation marks. A useful guideline is to use two short words that don't normally go together, and change some of the letters to numbers, like this: 5tar!f00t
3. To download your mail, use either of the following web addresses:
   webmail.pgwc.gov.za OR
   

   gwweb.pgwc.gov.za

Not all mailboxes are available yet, so it's best to check before you leave to see whether yours is or not.