eForms
Form 2 & Form 2A - Major and Non-major Natural Gas
Pipeline Annual Report
Note: This also applies to Fom 3-Q - Comprehensive Quarterly Financial and Operating Report
Electronic Submission Software - Overview
Both Form 2
and 2A are handled by the same submission software. There is only one
Form 2/2A Submission System. This also applies to Form 3-Q.
If you have not registered with FERC to use this software, you must email FERC
Online Support at ferconlinesupport@ferc.gov for
a PIN (personal identification number) for filing purposes. Your email
must contain
your name, email
address, exact legal company name, address, phone and fax numbers.
You will receive your PIN by return email.
Note: The Form 2/2A Software has been tested and
will function correctly with Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 95 & Windows
98. The application has been updated to be compatible with text cut from
Office 2000 documents and pasted into Footnotes and Notes to the Financials.
Installation Manual
The Form 2/2A Submission System Installation Manual is available for viewing
and/or printing by your Web Browser. For anyone who is going to use the software,
it is very important to read and understand those documents. In most cases, download,
install, and operation are extremely simple and there are no problems. However,
if your facility restricts Internet access via firewalls or proxies, certain
additional options (inside the program) may need to be set before the program
will work correctly. Also, if your facility uses Microsoft Windows NT, and if
the NT settings have been set up to be very restrictive (e.g. a person is not
allowed to install software on their own machine), other steps will be necessary.
For example, if people do not have rights to install software on their machine,
your IT department will have to 'unlock' the machine, allow the person to install
the Form 2/2A software, and then 'lock' it back afterwards.
The first person to run the software will still need to download the database
from FERC (the Installation Manual describes this in more detail). When
that person downloads the database, it is highly recommended to place it on a
network or shared drive so that multiple users could access it at the same time.
If others install the software, they do not need to download
the database again and again - they should simply 'point' to the same network
location where the database was downloaded the first time. The system is fully
multi-user capable. Even if only a single person will be editing the data, we
recommend a network drive so that your system backup procedures will include
the Form 2/2A database as well.
Internet Communications Problems
You will know when your workstation has Internet communication issues when; (a)
long waits while checking for updates (b) unable to submit the Form 2/2A Filing,
(c) unable to receive FERC software updates.
The Form 2/2A Submission System (F2SS) uses HTTP (to get the list of respondents
for initial creation of your database - you only use this once), FTP Receive
(to check for and deliver F2SS software updates) and FTP Send to submit your
filing. These common Internet Communication Protocols may be blocked by your
Internet Firewall for security reasons. This will require intervention by your
computer or network support personnel. To assist in diagnosing this problem,
we make available an Internet Communications Test Application - which you can
download and run on your workstation just as you did the Form 2/2A Submission
Software. Please see a description of this application below under Forms Communications
Test Application.
The easiest and most effective solution is to ask your Firewall Administrator
to install a rule in the Firewall permitting HTTP Send/Receive and FTP Send/Receive
from IP 208.207.43.25. This presents a minimal security risk
since all communication requests are issued by the Client (your workstation).
In other words, in all instances, the FERC software on your workstation "requests" files
from the FERC Forms Server. The FERC Forms Server does not "push" unsolicited
information to your workstation. The FERC Forms Server (as well as all computer
systems at FERC) are continuously monitored for virus "infection".
Form Communications Test Application
The FERC Forms Applications use the Internet to download the Form Submission
Software (FSS), provide updates to the software on the user's workstation, and
allow submission of forms data to the FERC via the Internet. Forms Submission
Systems (FSS) include Form 1, Form 423, Form 6, Form 2/2A, and others that are
currently in development.
To accomplish the above the user's PC communicates with an Internet server at
the FERC which is dedicated to supporting the FSS. The FSS uses Internet communication
protocols called HTTP and FTP.
Most respondent workstations are connected to a company network that uses Firewall
technology to protect and isolate the network from the Internet. Occasionally,
the company's Firewall is configured to prevent applications from communicating
with foreign servers over the Internet. In these cases, the FERC Form Submission
Software cannot communicate with the FERC Forms Server to obtain software updates,
for transmission/submission of completed Forms, and, in the case of Forms Data
Viewer software, the download of requested database information.
The Internet Test Application, which can be downloaded from the FERC Forms site
via your Internet browser, is used to test Internet Communications from your
workstation to the FERC Forms Server to determine compatibility with FSS. It
is not a requirement to use this application, you will get the same results with
the Form Submission Software. However, a number of respondents find it easier
to let their network support personnel use this software to test the communications
functionality without having to download the entire Form Submission software.
When you run this software, it just displays a screen with a checkbox beside
each type of communication mode used by the Forms software, and indicates whether
each one passed or failed. The software also produces a log file of its activity
for review and diagnostic purposes.
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Downloads & Links
Electronic Submission Software
Data
Data Filed Electronically
Viewer
Form Communications Test Application
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