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Using the Smarter Balanced Secure FTP Site
2017-07-13 | 1.2

Introduction

Smarter Balanced uses a Secure FTP site provided by HostedFTP to share sensitive and bulky digital materials including Interim and Summative test packages. These instructions will help you set up your FTP client for access to these materials.

Most contents on the Secure FTP site are sensitive. For member states, these contents are subject to the confidentiality clause of your Memo of Understanding with UCSC/Smarter Balanced. For service providers and other partners, you should have signed a confidentiality agreement before being granted access.

Welcome Email

The contents on the Secure FTP site are divided into folders and access is granted on a per-folder basis. Each time you are granted access you will receive a welcome email similar to the following:

From: FTP-Admin [mailto:ftp@hostedftp.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 7, 2015 1:12 AM
To: Zog.Jones@farside.org
Cc: FTP-Admin
Subject: AssessmentTrainingAndOperations

https://smarterbalanced.hostedftp.com/Xg48gdYRf2
~ click to login ~

FTP-Admin (sbac) gave you Read access to the folder 
AssessmentTrainingAndOperations

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
http://www.smarterbalanced.org

Hosted~FTP~
FTP in the Cloud
www.hostedftp.com

Setting a Password

The first time you click on one of these links, you will be prompted to set a password. For future access, your username is your email address and your password is the one you set the first time you connect.

Per the terms of your organization’s confidentiality agreement, you share with UCSC/Smarter Balanced the responsibility for preserving the security of these materials. So, please set a good quality password and keep it secure.

Web Browser Access

ftps.smarterbalanced.org

You can access the Secure FTP site in your web browser either by clicking on an emailed link or by browsing to ftps.smarterbalanced.org. Once on the site, click on the Files tab to find files and on the Setup tab to change your password or make other changes to your account.

From the Files tab you can download individual files or an entire folder. When downloading a folder, the site combines all of the files in the folder into a .zip file.

Configuring an FTP Client

An FTP client is the better choice for reliability and performance when downloading many files or bulky files. Any FTP client that supports encryption will work. FileZilla, a free download, is an excellent choice.

Once you have installed an FTP client, you will need to configure the Smarter Balanced site. Here are the parameters:

Host (or server) Name:  ftps.smarterbalanced.org
Protocol:               FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Encryption:             Explicit FTP over TLS
Logon Type:             Normal
User:                   <your email address>
Password:               <your password, set using the website>
Default Directory:      /

Other Tips

As of Fall 2018 the Smarter Balanced Test Delivery System (TDS) is no longer supported.

The code base and documentation for the TDS is available within the Smarter Balanced GitHub repository.

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