FTP Information for Mortgage Companies

Last Revised: August 10, 2011

Below are the instructions for sending files to and from the ACT FTP server. Please modify the information in red as appropriate for your tax office. The items in bold should be keyed in.

ACT's new secure FTP server is ready to be accessed for the 2010 tax season. Please notify your mortgage companies, and any other entities that access these folders, that the change is effective immediately upon notification. We would like to see if there are issues with mortgage companies accessing these sites, so they can be resolved this year. The old FTP server was retired in early 2011.

Documents will remain in your secure FTP folders for only 30 days. If you need to keep any documents longer than 30 days, you need to move those to a local machine located in your office.

On your “old FTP server” folder, you will find a folder called: ftp://ftp.publicans.com/ftp_bexar_mortgage/FTP Update. Within that FTP Update folder, you will find instructions for installing the FTP client program FileZilla and how to configure it for the secure FTP server.

All ACT clients have two secure FTP folders.

(1) The first folder is called FTP_BEXAR_MORTGAGE. This folder should contain the information you would provide to public entities, for example, mortgage companies or other vendors who can access public information. Here is the information you would provide to them:

The Internet Address for secured FTP file transfers via an automated process or FTP client software (not Internet Browser) is: sftp.publicans.com.
The Internet Address for secured FTP file transfers via your Internet Browser is: https://sftp.publicans.com/.
The IP Address (if required by your FTP client or automated process) for our secured FTP server can be given out by the tax office.
The folder name (login): FTP_BEXAR.
The folder password: xxxxxxxx (contact the tax office for this).

(2) The second folder is called FTP_BEXAR_OFFICE. This folder should be used for your private information. You should only allow certain entities, not mortgage companies, access to this folder. Here is the information you would provide to them for access:

The Internet Address for secured FTP file transfers via an automated process or FTP client software (not Internet Browser) is: sftp.publicans.com.
The Internet Address for secured FTP file transfers via your Internet Browser is: https://sftp.publicans.com/.
The IP Address (if required by your FTP client or automated process) for our secured FTP server can be given out by the tax office.
The folder name (login): FTP_BEXAR_INTER.
The folder password: xxxxxxxxx (contact the tax office for this).

Two special preferences must be set by ACT before batch menu processes will begin using the secure FTP server. These are:

NEW_FTP: Set to ON to allow users to put ACT processes to place files on the secure FTP server. Set to OFF to use the original FTP server.

NEW_FTP_GET: Set to ON to allow ACT processes to retrieve files from the secure FTP server. Set to OFF to use the original FTP server.

UNSECURED FTP SERVER (2009 and prior)

Sample FTP instructions for Fort Bend County tax year 2006:

"I have provided information for you to "put" and "get" information dealing with the FTP Mortgage site for Fort Bend County. If you have any other questions, please feel free to call or e-mail myself or the ACT Help Desk. Thank you.

Host Name/Address: ftp.publicans.com

User ID: anonymous

Password: guest@unknown.com <mailto:guest@unknown.com>

Host Directory: ftp_fbc_mortgage

**********************

Instructions from Command prompt in bold are what you enter.

**********************

C:\>ftp

ftp> open ftp.publicans.com

Connected to ftp.publicans.com.

220 ITGFTPSERVER01 Microsoft FTP Service (Version 5.0).

User (ftp.publicans.com:(none)): anonymous

331 Anonymous access allowed, send identity (e-mail name) as password.

Password:

230-Welcome to The Publicans FTP Server.

230-

230-Please contact help@publicans.com if you are having any problems.

230 Anonymous user logged in.

ftp> cd ftp_fbc_mortgage

*You must CD to the HOST DIRECTORY that was given*

250 CWD command successful.

ftp> LS

200 PORT command successful.

150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list.

226 Transfer complete.

ftp> put {type your file name here}

ftp>bye

***********************

Please notify our contacts listed in your initial, via e-mail, the date, the name of the file, how many records and the total dollar amount of the file you had just placed on the FTP site. Thank you."