Publication Date: June 8, 2001
Author: General Manager: SFA School Channel
Summary: Second Installment of SFA to the Internet Migration Communication
Posted on June 8, 2001
SFA is pleased to bring you the second installment of SFA to the Internet migration communication. Testing and development has begun on the new SFA to the Internet software products. We are also continuing to gather volunteers to be early adopters of the project.
In this second communication installment we will:
- Discuss what things you can do now to be better prepared for migration.
- Identify when the mainframe/non-PC user guide will be available.
- Will I need to have a web site address to transmit data?
- Will I need to migrate all of my school's NSLDS on-line users?
What can I be doing now to get ready for the SFA to the Internet migration?
You will need to provide your unique identifiers to confirm your migration status. Your unique identifiers include Social Security Number, Date of Birth and Mother's Maiden Name as it appears on your SAIG/Title IV WAN enrollment submission via web site or paper. We will ask you to supply these three identifiers during your migration process this fall. We encourage you to update your enrollment information if you are unable to access these identifiers. This will help ensure you are ready for migration this fall. One of the most common reasons why someone would not know their identifiers is if your destination point administrator no longer works at the school. You can update your enrollment information at sfawebenroll.ed.gov or you can contact CPS/WAN Technical Support.
Also make sure you have an Internet Service Provider and have verified that you can connect to the Internet.
When will the mainframe/non-PC user guide be available?
SFA will release a copy of the mainframe/non-PC user's guide for SFA to the Internet on June 18, 2001. This document will be made available on the FSAdownload web site at http://fsadownload.ed.gov. This guide includes the necessary access and communication information for customers who send and receives data using a mainframe or non-PC platform.
What will be the address of the web site for SFA to the Internet?
SFA to the Internet does not utilize a web site for transmission. The "Internet" part of this mailboxing system involves using the customers Internet Service Provider to send and receive data. The destination point will still use the EDconnect software (or a software called EasyAccess for mainframe destinations) to transmit their data to SFA.
We have a number of TG ID's for each of our NSLDS on-line users at our school. Will we need to migrate all of them?
If you request batches of information from the NSLDS web site with a given NSLDS on-line user ID, you will need to migrate that TG ID to SFA to the Internet this fall in order to retrieve reports requested via NSLDS web site. If you do not request batches of information from NSLDS, you do not need to migrate that NSLDS on-line user to the SFA to the Internet.
How do I find out more about this project?
We will continue to send out communications twice a month through the end of July 2001 and then weekly throughout the migration process. Each communication will be entitled "SFA to the Internet status update". If you happen to miss any of the updates, all of this information will be kept collectively at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/sfatech/sfafaq.html. We would encourage you to bookmark this location.
You can also access this from the school portal (http://sfa4schools.sfa.ed.gov), SFATECH, or IFAP web sites. If you have questions, please contact CPS/WAN Technical Support at (800) 330-5947, or via email at cpswan@ncs.com. There is no charge for technical support from CPS/WAN Technical Support.