| Publication Date: March 6, 2008 Author: William Leith, Acting General Manager, Application, Operations and Delivery Services, Federal Student Aid Summary: Required EDconnect v7.2 and TDClient INI File Upgrade - Reminder Posted on 03-06-2008 In our fourth communication to the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) user community, we strongly urge all EDconnect and all Transaction Delivery (TD) Client and Easy Access (EA) Client users to upgrade their transmission software by May 1, 2008 as outlined in this letter. As you know, Federal Student Aid is in the process of relocating the data center that supports numerous Federal Student Aid systems and Web sites. Due to a change in the IP address that EDconnect and TDClient use to send and receive files, users of previous versions of EDconnect must install or upgrade to EDconnect 7.2, and users of TDClient/EAClient must install a new initialization (tdclient.ini) file. If you fail to upgrade by the time the transition to the new data center is complete, you will be unable to send and receive files. To date, over 50% of EDconnect users have upgraded to 7.2, but that still leaves a significant number who have not and are at risk of being unable to access SAIG once the transition occurs. To verify what version you are using, log into EDconnect and select File, About EDconnect from the menu bar. If you are not currently using version 7.2, please follow the steps detailed below at your earliest convenience to download and install the new version. EDconnect Software EDconnect 7.2 is available on the FSAdownload Web site (http://fsadownload.ed.gov) as a single downloadable file, EDconn720.exe, and in eight separate smaller files that can be downloaded to a central location. See the Installation Guide for EDconnect 7.2, which is also available on the FSAdownload Web site, for detailed installation information. EDconnect 7.2 can be installed as an upgrade to version 7.0 or version 7.1 but not as an upgrade to earlier versions of EDconnect. Users of EDconnect 6.x or earlier must perform a Local Install for stand-alone installations or a Network Install followed by a Workstation Install for network installations. Users of EDconnect 7.0 or 7.1 can perform a Local Install - Custom for stand-alone installations or a Workstation Install for network installations. You are required to have Windows 2000 or Windows XP Home or Professional as your workstation operating system in order to run EDconnect 7.2. The U.S. Department of Education has not approved EDconnect 7.2 for use with Microsoft's Windows Vista. Transaction Delivery (TD) Client and Easy Access (EA) Client Software The new tdclient.ini file is available in two formats; EBCDIC and ASCII, on the FSAdownload Web site (http://fsadownload.ed.gov). Supported TDClient platforms are MVS/ZOS, HPUX, AIX, OS400 and Sun Solaris. See the SAIG Host Communication Guide, which is also available on the FSAdownload Web site, for detailed installation information. Please note that the new tdclient.ini file is for mainframe/midrange system users only and not for users of the EDconnect software. The port that EDconnect and TDClient use for transmissions, port 26581, has not changed. This port needs to be open for outbound transmissions only. If you have any questions about the information contained in this document, contact CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800/330-5947 (TDD/TTY 800/511-5806), or by e-mail at CPSSAIG@ed.gov. |