General Information - ORION (TA, TD, TQ, TR & TU)

ORION (TA, TD, TQ, TR & TU)

The objective of the ORION application are:

First, it allows a user to find the ORI of an Nlets user agency when only the location (city and state) or Federal agency (name of agency and state) is known.
Second, if only the ORI is known it allows a user to gather information (i.e., address, phone, FAX number) on an agency.
Primary validation for agency's permissions on the Nlets system.

The functions associated with the ORION file include:

Function Destination ORI to Use Create/Add Record (TA) OD Modify/Update Record (TU) OD Cancel/Delete Record (TD) OD Query Record (TQ) 2-character code of the location of the agency
(e.g., 50 state codes, CN, NL, DC, PR, or FN)

In the case of a search by role OD can be used

to search for roles across all locations.

ORION Validation, Creation and Certification

The objective of the ORION FILE is to assure that only authorized users are using the network and these users are using the network for authorized purposes. Once created, Nlets ensures that it is both accurate and complete.

Validation

Validation of sending ORIs must be accomplished on every transaction passed to Nlets.

Creation

Only NCIC approved ORIs, Nlets generic ORIs and Board approved ORIs may be entered on Nlets. For example, Indiana may not enter an Illinois ORI. Only terminals authorized by the Nlets System Agency (NSA) may add entries to ORION. The "add/cancel" authorization flag can be manipulated only by the NSA ORI. After initial creation, Nlets will print every ORI that is added to the file. They will be checked against NCIC's ORI file to determine whether it is on NCIC. If it is not, it must have been approved by the Board of Directors.

Once approved for access, Nlets controls daily access to the network through comparison to an Nlets-resident table of authorized ORIs called the ORI On-line Directory (ORION). The sender and destination ORIs are checked on every transmission sent through the network. Nlets also uses the ORI in conjunction with ORION to control the types of information sent through the network. It is therefore a critical piece of every transmission over the network.

Nlets divides ORIs into two types: criminal justice and non-criminal justice ORIs.

The non-criminal justice agencies are further divided:
Those that have an ORI assigned by the FBI
Those that have an ORI assigned by Nlets.

Law Enforcement:
PD - any agency of city government.
SO - any agency of county government including parishes where apropos.
SA - any agency employed by a state with statewide jurisdiction.
LE - used as a catchall for any agency not fitting the above criteria. May be used on inquiry or record creation.
FE - Federal agency.

Criminal Justice:
JA - any prosecutor.
JC - any corrections agency.
JG - any probation agency.
JJ - any court agency.
JF - any Federal non-law enforcement criminal justice agency.
CJ - will return all defined non-law enforcement criminal justice agencies and should be used as a general type for all
ORIs ending in B, M, N or Y.

Non-Criminal Justice Organizations or Agencies (i.e., DMV):
NJ - non-criminal justice agencies.
(Note: Generally, the second letter of these two character codes is the same one used by NCIC in breaking down their
ORIs for criminal justice agencies).

All law enforcement and criminal justice agencies in the United State and Canada are authorized to access Nlets. There are many non-criminal justice agencies that are authorized to access Nlets. These fall into three groups as described below.

Generic Types of Agencies:

Non-Criminal Justice Governmental Agencies with an FBI ORI
These agencies have been assigned an ORI by the FBI but are not criminal justice agencies.
Example: Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) within the states.

Non-Criminal Justice Governmental Agencies with an Nlets ORI
These agencies have been assigned an ORI by Nlets but are not criminal justice agencies.
These ORIs may be identified by an "s" in the 9th character.
Example: A child support enforcement agency within a state.

Private Not-for-Profit Organizations with an Nlets or NCIC ORI
These organizations may have an ORI assigned by the FBI or Nlets. Through their membership
they provide a service to the law enforcement or criminal justice community. These Nlets ORIs
may be identified by an "S" in the 9th character.
Example: An organization such as the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

Certification

It is the responsibility of the Nlets representative to ensure that all ORION entries owned by that user (state, federal, international or associate) have been certified as up to date and accurate at least every two years. These dates will coincide with NCIC's validation of their ORI file.

Every two years media containing all ORIs will be made available to each Nlets representative. The Nlets representative will certify that all records are valid, accurate and up to date. He or she will then sign a certification document attesting to the validity of each record owned by the member. Nlets staff will cause the certification date in each record to be updated to reflect the successful completion of the certification procedure. Users will have 90 days to certify their ORIs.

Following the 90 day certification period, Nlets will notify members who have not certified their ORI file that their ORIs will be deactivated in thirty days unless certified within that time period. A return receipt for the second notice will be requested. If after thirty days from the time the member has received the second notice, the ORIs still have not been certified, the ORIs will be deactivated.

Create Your File

The ORION application has been developed to provide the user with a variety of ways to access information. In order to take full advantage of this design the user must have a clear understanding of how the file is created. Each user creates his/her own file. The usefulness and flexibility of a file is determined by the record input.

It is the responsibility of the state representative to enter and maintain ORIs for all state, local, Federal and other agencies that have a terminal on their state system that can access Nlets.

The Federal member representative is responsible for entering ORI records for the appropriate state sub-files for all terminals for which they provide service and for entering any of their ORIs that they deem appropriate into the corresponding state sub-files.

Entry of a New ORI (TA)

The criteria for entry of ORIs on ORION is as follows:

Any agency whose assigned ORI accesses Nlets either directly, or by agreement through another agency, shall have an entry on ORION.
If there are multiple terminals within a law enforcement agency that have access to Nlets, separate entries are required when the first 7 characters of the ORI are the same and at least one other data field in the ORION record (e.g., phone #, address, etc.) differs.
For criminal justice agencies, if multiple ORIS are assigned to the same agency, an entry is required for each ORI that accesses Nlets.

ORI Entry Requirements

The following fields are optional: PH2, FAX. FX2, REM, and ROL. The ATH field is a combined authorization field that combines the old CHR field with additional authorization flags.

Leading zeros in the optional fields (PH2, FAX, REM) cause the fields to be cleared and not displayed. Other field edits are as described. Federal ORIs receive special processing.

The flags represent methods of controlling maintenance of the file.

Flag Tag Description CTO flag

Originally set by Nlets upon creation of the file, defaults to "N" on all other
records.
Allows the flagged ORI to set all other flags within their ORION file.

AOC flag Authorizes an ORI to add or cancel a record and defaults to "N".
Can only be set by an ORI that has the CTO flag set to "Y". ACT flag

Denotes the status of an ORI; either active or inactive.
Inquiry upon this ORI results in a response with the record information but the
ORI will not be able to send or receive messages over Nlets.
Can only be set by an ORI that has the CTO flag set to "Y" (control terminal
agency).

ATH flag

The ATH field is the replacement for the CHR field and controls access in
general, including CHR (but not including ORION maintenance, which is still
controlled by the CTO and AOC flags).
Four categories of access are defined:

A = Permission to send administrative messages
C = Permission to send criminal history message types (IQ, FQ & AQ)
D = Permission to send DMV related message types (DQ,RQ & KQ)
Z = Permission to send other Nlets message types

The Nlets table of valid message types associates one of the above codes
with each message type (except ORION maintenance), and allows the user
access to the message type if the user's ORI has the appropriate code.

The priority (<j:AgencyBaselinePriorityValue> or "PRI") field defines a baseline priority for low-priority ORIs. Nlets sends all messages with one of 12 priorities, based on the message type and designates 1-12, with 1 the highest and 12 the lowest. The baseline priority specifies that messages to this ORI be assigned at least the specified baseline.

Messages with lower priority number (i.e., that are higher priority) will be set to this baseline number.
Messages with higher priority numbers (i.e., that have lower priority) will be left unchanged.

For example, a message typically sent at priority 3 would be sent at reduced priority 10 if the ORI has a baseline priority of 10.

If the baseline priority field is not specified, Nlets defaults it to 10 for ORIs ending in "S", and to 0 (use standard priorities) for all other ORIs.

The sender ORI must be valid for the line on which the transaction was received. In addition, the data ORI, which is the ORI to be entered into the file, also must be valid for the line. (i.e., AZ0120023 (with AOC/ set to Y) can add/update an entry in the Arizona Orion File provided that AZ012003 is in the Arizona Orion File and Nlets receives the message from the Arizona Line.)

Finally, a check is made to ensure there is no existing ORI record with the same state code, location and ORI.

If all checks are successful, the line name that the transaction was received on is stored as the owner of the ORI record and the current date is stored as the creation date.

The sub-file that the record will be inserted into is derived from the first two characters of the data ORI. If the first two characters are a state code, "DC", or "PR", the record is entered into that sub-file. All other records are entered into the foreign (or miscellaneous) sub-file.

In the simplest case, a user will enter a single record for each agency, giving the agency's location, agency name, ORI and all other data elements.

The only optional data elements are as follows:

Alternate phone number
FAX phone number
Alternate FAX number
Remarks field
Agency Roles

Additional records may be entered for the same location with different ORIs (i.e., PD, Sheriff's Office and State Police offices in the same location).

Similarly, additional records may be added for the same ORI at different locations (i.e., an agency may serve several locations). This will enable a user to locate, for example, a Sheriff's Office when only the city name is known.

No State or Federal member may enter an ORI that it would not be allowed to use as a sending ORI.

Only ORIs that are assigned by NCIC or those that are approved by Nlets will be allowed in the ORION file.

Control Terminal Functions

With the addition of ORI validation and attending control flags, the NSA assumes additional responsibility for the maintenance and control of its portion of the ORION file. The NSA, or any ORI designated by the NSA, will have the ability to modify authorization flags or perform any maintenance on the member's file.

For example, only NSAs can:

Designate the ORIs from their user population who can add/cancel records, activate or deactivate ORIs.
Designate who is authorized to send/receive criminal history information.

Although it is recognized that NSAs may authorize other ORIs to add/cancel records, by turning on the add/cancel flag (AOC); it is strongly suggested that the NSA retain sole authority to:

Modify the status of an ORI (active or inactive).
Modify the authorization for an ORI to send/receive criminal history information.

Regardless of the delegation of authority for maintenance of the ORION file, Nlets will always consider the NSA from each member state or Federal agency as the responsible agency regarding the accuracy and completeness of their ORI file.

ORI Record Definition

There are several fields that are created by the ORION system to provide information on the record. This information is supplied by Nlets and will show up on the response but is not put in by the user when adding a record. It includes the following:

Entry Explanation Record Owner Name of line that record was received from initially; update is restricted
to this line, and record will be included in file listing for this line only. Creation Date Date ORI record was added to the ORION file. Update Date Date ORI record was most recently updated. Certification Date Date ORI record was last certified.

Federal ORI Entry

Special processing is done on entry of Federal ORIs. If the ORI being added is a Federal agency (as determined by the following table), the system will insert a three character Federal code, followed by a dash, as the first four characters of the location field (<j:LocationName> or LOC). The code to be inserted for each type of Federal ORI is defined below.

Agency Name Federal Agency Code Description Administrative Office of the Courts UCP UCP Air Force Office of Special Investigations, United States OSI OSI Air Force, United States AF0 AF0 Amtrak Railroad Police AMX AMX Application Processing Center ASC ASC Armed Forces Police AFP AFP Army Criminal Investigations Division, United States CID CID Army, United States and Army Provost Marshal USA USA Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ATF ATF Bureau of Consumer Protection Federal Trade Commission FTC FTC Bureau of Customs CAS CAS Bureau of Customs USC USC Bureau of Engraving and Printing BEP BEP Bureau of Justice Statistics BJS BJS Bureau of Mint Police BOM BOM Capitol Police, United States CAP CAP Central Intelligence Agency CIA CIA Citizens Immigration Services CIS CIS Citizens Immigration Services, Fraud Detection FDS FDS Coast Guard, United States CG0 CG0 Coast Guard, United States CGD CGD Coast Guard, United States HSC HSC Customs and Border Protection CBP CBP Defense Protective Services (Pentagon) DPP DPP Defense Security Services DSS DSS Department of Agriculture DOA DOA Department of Commerce DC0 DC0 Department of Defense Passport Services PTS PTS Department of Defense DOD DOD Department of Energy DOE DOE Department of Homeland Security - Office of Inspector General DHS DHS Department of Interior DI0 DI0 Department of Interior DI1 DI1 Department of Interior DIF DIF Department of Interior DIP DIP Department of Interior DOI DOI Department of Justice DOJ DOJ Department of Labor DOL DOL Department of State DOS DOS Department of Transportation DOT DOT Department of Treasury TRE TRE Drug Enforcement Administration DEA DEA EEO Commission - Office of Inspector General EEO EEO Environmental Protection Agency EPA EPA FBI - Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs BND BND FBI - CJIS Intelligence Group BEX BEX FBI - Counter Terrorism Division CTD CTD FBI - FBI Project RTI RTI FBI - FBI Terrorist Screening Center TSC TSC FBI - Foreign Biometrics – GIU requests FBE FBE FBI - Known and Suspected Terrorist KST KST FBI - Legat Offices LEG LEG FBI - National Data Exchange NDX NDX FBI - National Security Interest NSI NSI FBI - National Threat Operation Center NTO NTO FBI - Preventing and Combating Serious Crimes PCC PCC FBI - Records Management Division RMD RMD FBI - Risk Assessment Program FTT FTT FBI - South American Fingerprint Exploitation Initiative SAF SAF Federal Air Marshals FAM FAM Federal Aviation Agency FAA FAA Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI FBI Federal Emergency Management Agency FEM FEM Federal Protective Service FPS FPS Federal Reserve System FRB FRB Food and Drug Administration FDA FDA General Services Administration GSA GSA Government Printing Office GPO GPO Health and Human Services HHS HHS Homeland Security Investigations HSI HSI Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE ICE Immigration and Naturalization Services INS INS Internal Revenue Service IRS IRS Interpol INT INT Interstate Commerce Commission ICC ICC Marines, United States MC0 MC0 Marines, United States MCD MCD Marshals Service USM USM National Aeronautics and Space Administration NAS NAS National Gallery of Art GA0 GA0 National Instant Criminal Background Check System NIC NIC National Motor Vehicle Titling Information System BJA BJA National Security Agency NSA NSA Naval Clemency & Parole Board NVA NVA Naval Investigative Service NIS NIS Naval, United States personnel command corrections NDC NDC Navy, United States (USN) NAV NAV Navy, United States (USN) USN USN Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC NRC Office of Personnel Management OPM OPM Postal Inspection Service - (Do not use for future assignments) POW POW Postal Inspection Service PO0 PO0 Secret Service SS0 SS0 Secret Service SS1 SS1 Secret Service SS2 SS2 Secret Service SS3 SS3 Secret Service SS4 SS4 Secret Service SS5 SS5 Secret Service SS6 SS6 Secret Service SS7 SS7 Secret Service SS8 SS8 Secret Service SS9 SS9 Smithsonian Institution SI0 SI0 Transportation Security Administration TSA TSA Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration TIX TIX U.S. Park Police PPD PPD Veterans Administration VA0 VA0 Zoological Park Police ZPP ZPP

The system will also verify that agency type code "FE" was specified if the ORI is found in the table for Federal law enforcement agencies. (No special agency type edit will be done on non-law enforcement ORIs.)

Foreign (Miscellaneous) ORI File

A "foreign" sub-file (member code "FN") will be provided for entering ORIs that are not located in a state, D.C., Puerto Rico or Canada for example. Normal authorization checks will be done.

For example, "JANIS0400" would be a valid ORI for the Yokohama, Japan office of the Naval Investigative Service, but the first two characters do not match any member code. Therefore, the record is entered in the "FN" sub-file. Should a Federal agency use a general code of "US", this also would be placed in the file.

For example, the Naval Investigative Service Headquarters is in Suitland, Maryland, but its ORI is USNIS0000. Since the first two characters are not a state, D.C., Puerto Rico, or Canada for example, it would go in the "FN" catch-all file. To inquire on it you would use a destination of "FN" and "FED/NIS". You would receive all NIS ORIs in the foreign file. By adding more information to the "NIS" (e.g., NIS - SUITLAND) you would retrieve only the Suitland record in the "FN" file.

Entry Authorization Checks

Record entry authorization requires that the ORI being entered is valid for the line on which the transaction was received. In addition the ORI that is entering the record must be authorized, as determined by the AOC flag, to enter records. When entering a record all flags are set at the default. Only a NSA, as determined by the CTO flag is authorized to modify the flag fields.

Record update and delete authorization requires that the transaction be received on the same line that originally entered the ORI record.

Modify an Existing ORI Record (TU)

The ORI and location are both required in order to modify a record. Only records matching both the location and ORI will be modified.

The sender's line code is compared to the record owner's line code to verify the sender is authorized to update the ORI record.

At least one additional field must be specified, along with the new data to be stored in that field. Any fields given, including agency type, must pass the specific field edits.

Note: It is possible to clear out a REM field by sending a single "0". It is not possible to clear
out any other field, but they can be changed to a value of a single "-" or "0" depending on the
field that is being updated.

Note: The state code, location and ORI cannot be changed through an update command.
Changing these items will require deletion of the old record and entry of a new ORI record
with correct state code, location and ORI.
The flag fields may only be modified by authorized ORIs.

Delete an Existing ORI Record (TD)

Note: Only an ORI that has been authorized to add or cancel an ORION record may
submit an <n:MessageKeyCode>TD</n:MessageKeyCode> (XML) or "TD" (Legacy).
This authorization is provided by the NSA through setting of the AOC flag in the
sender's ORION record.

The location and ORI are required and must match the location and ORI fields in the record to be deleted. The sender's line code is compared to the record owner's line code to verify the sender is authorized to delete the ORI record.

If all checks are successful, the record is deleted.

Note: If multiple locations (and thus, records) occur for a single ORI, deletion of the ORI
requires deletion of the records individually.

For example, Maricopa County SO serves Phoenix, Mesa, and Scottsdale. Therefore, three records for the agency's ORI may have been entered that specified different locations for the ORI. Deleting the ORI would then require three separate delete transactions.

Access the ORION File (TQ)

There are three types of inquiries that one may use to access the ORION file. They are described in the table below.

Inquiry
Response Retrieve specific records by ORI.
The response will be the complete text of all
records on file for the ORI, unless there are more
than three.
If there are more than three, summary records will
be returned.
A file search by location.
The response to an inquiry by location will usually
comprise summaries of all matching records.
However, if there are three or fewer matches,
complete records for the matches are returned.
A file search by Federal agency ID,
limited if desired, to a particular location.
The response to an inquiry by Federal agency ID
will usually comprise summaries of all matching
records.
However, if there are three or fewer matches,
complete records for the matches are returned.
A file search by role.

The response to a role inquiry will comprise of a

summary of all agencies with a matching role.

However, if there are three or fewer matches then

Complete records will be returned for those matches.

Note: The response will include a designation of the owner or line mnemonic of the record at
the bottom of the record. This indicates the line that actually entered the record. Only this
line can modify or cancel this record.

Retrieve a Record by ORI

Note: If an ORI is submitted and an exact match is not found, a search of eight and
seven characters will be made. This may result in some voluminous responses but it will
provide the inquirer with ORIs of the agency if not the exact terminal.

When searching by ORI, location is optional.

The complete record response includes the following:

ORI
location
agency name
type of agency
address
city
zip code
phone
alternate phone number, if present
hours of service
authorization flag
baseline priority

FAX phone number (sender pays), if present
alternate FAX phone number, if present
NSA flag
add/cancel authorization flag
active/inactive flag
record owner
creation date
update date
certification date
remarks

agency roles

Retrieve a Record by Location

The location is required and the type is optional.
All records in the specified member subfile that match the specified location and agency type, as described below, are returned to the sending ORI.
The type field is optional, and if not specified defaults to search all law enforcement ORIs (types PD, SO, SA, LE, FE, RP) since the vast majority of inquiries will be for law enforcement ORIs.
Federal agency records are not retrieved.
If a criminal justice agency (other than law enforcement) or a non-criminal justice agency (such as NICB) is being sought, the appropriate type code should be used. If a type code of "CJ" is used all criminal justice agencies (other than law enforcement and Federal agencies) will be returned as well as non-criminal justice agencies. The non-criminal justice agencies will clearly be identified in the response as a non-criminal justice agency.

Search Method

The requirements for a search are as follows:

At least 2 characters are required.
The complete location need not be specified.
The system searches for exact matches of the characters provided.

For example, if the user does not know how to spell Tucson (or is it Tuscon?), the user may inquire on <j:OrganizationLocation>TU</j:OrganizationLocation> or LOC/TU and the system will retrieve all entries that begin with "TU". The system will search from 2 to 7 characters with this method. It is intended to eliminate the need for a soundexed system and yet still provide assistance with spelling difficulties.

Entry Return Examples

If seven or fewer
characters are given,
the system tries first to
find records whose
entire location field
matches the specified
characters.

If the location matches
a location on file, only
that record will be
returned.
If no records match
exactly, then the
system searches for
records that begin with
the specified
characters.

A query on <j:OrganizationLocation>ROCK</j:Organization
Location> or LOC/ROCK would produce only the complete
record for the police department in Rock, Illinois. A query
<j:OrganizationLocation>ROC or LOC/ROC would
produce summary records for ROCK, ROCK FALLS,
ROCKFORD, AND ROCK ISLAND

If the user supplies
more than 7 characters,
only the first seven will
be compared unless an
exact match can be
made of the entire
location field in the
inquiry with one or more
location fields in the file
records.

Only the exact
matching records will
be returned regardless
of the number of
characters searched.

If one inquires on Kalamazoo and there are records with
"Kalamazoo" and "Kalamazo" only the exact matching
record will be returned.
If one inquires on "Kalamazu" both records would be
returned since there was no exact match.

If the user specifies only
two location characters,
and no matches are
found.

A "no record" message
is returned.

If more than two
characters are given
and no records match all
the characters.

The system will delete
the user's last specified
character and try again
for one or more
matches.
This process is
repeated until matches
are found, or until the
system can find no
matches on even the
first two characters.
The response will
indicate that an
extended search was
performed.

If the user specified "TUCSON" as the location, the location
will be shortened by one character to TUCSO, then TUCS,
TUC and finally TU, and, as above, the system will return all
locations beginning with "TU".

Response to Inquiry (TR)

Matching Records Nlets Returns If there are three or fewer
matching records: The complete content of all matching records is returned. If there are four or more matches: A summary of each matching record is returned.

Should the inquirer receive multiple summary records, a second inquiry can be made on the specific ORI in order to retrieve the complete ORI record.
If the user still receives only summary data, an inquiry with both ORI and location must be submitted to narrow the search.
No more than 100 hits will be returned on a single query. If this occurs, the user must narrow the search by providing more information in the location or type field.
The record summary is designed to fit on a Legacy 72-character line and includes the following:
- Agency name
- Location
- ORI
- Indicates hours of service
- CHRI authorization flag
- Indicates if the record is for a non-criminal justice agency
- Indicates whether the agency has a FAX # in their record

The legend for code interpretation follows:

For Sending Address Nlets Response Positive ORION responses xxORION00

The xx = 2 character state code
specifies the subfile from which the
records were retrieved.

Negative responses
indicating no records were
found

xxORIONN0

A "Not Found" message suggesting
that the inquirer send an
administrative message so that the
Nlets representative can provide
assistance.

For the foreign (or miscellaneous) subfile, "FN", the user should route the administrative message to the related Federal agency 2-character code or 9-character address.
Nlets will extract negative responses from its log tapes periodically and supply them to the members for identification of ORI records that should be added. In this way states can locate common misspellings or add entries to the file that may have inadvertently been omitted.

Retrieve a Record by Role

The role to be searched on is required.
The search can be sent for a specific state or to “OD” for all agencies with the role regardless of their state.
All records that match the specified role, within the restrictions of it being for a specific state or for all records, are returned to the sending ORI.

Search Method

The requirements for a search are as follows:

An exact match for the role codes are needed for the search. The system searches for exact matches of the characters provided.
The roles that can be searched are as follows:
- RTCC = Real Time Crime Center
- HEAT = Human Exploitation and Trafficking

Retrieve a Federal Agency Record

To search a Federal agency's ORI record, specify a Federal agency 3-character code with <FederalAgency> or "FED" prefix rather than <j:LocationName> or "LOC" prefix. The destination code indicates the state where the Federal agency resides.

To limit the search to a particular location, the agency code is followed by a dash and one or more characters of the location.

Inquiry Response A file search by Federal agency
3-character code.

All records in the specified state sub file for the
agency, limited to those matching the location,
if any, are returned to the sending ORI.
If there are three or fewer matching records, the
complete content of all matching records is
returned. However, if there are four or more
matches, a summary of each matching record
is returned. The formats of
the two types of responses are provided.
No more than 100 hits will be returned on a
single query. If this occurs, the user must
narrow the search by providing more
information.

Federal agencies will be handled differently since, for example, the user might be looking for the closest Federal office but may not know where the office is actually located. Inquiring by Federal agency ID returns all the Federal agency's offices within a state.

For example, if a user needs to contact the closest FBI office to Kalamazoo, Michigan he will send the state code "MI" and the agency name "FBI". The system will return all FBI offices in Michigan and the user will select the one he prefers.
To narrow the search, modify the request. Adding the letters DE after FBI, (FBI/DE) would result in the search being limited to only FBI offices in Michigan that are at a location with a name beginning with the letters "DE".

There are several Federal agencies with designated ORION codes of "MSC" who have only a few terminals on Nlets. They are all placed in a single miscellaneous sub file.

FNORIHELP

By sending an administrative message ("AM") message to FNORIHELP the user will receive a list of the Federal agencies, their 3 character codes from their ORIs and the associated ORION Federal code used to search by FED/.