News

As some customers are aware, our mail server recently became compromised and was used as a relay for spammers. This vulnerability was discovered to be a result of insufficient password requirements, which allowed the alleged spammer to access accounts using simple passwords. Beginning July 1, 2010, Firehouse Solutions will be adopting the following password requirements for the Mail Server and Members Area: Must be at least 6 characters Require a number Require a capital letter ...

Firehouse Solutions has developed and tested a News Toolbar to be deployed on your website. This is a notification that on Thursday, April 8, 2010, our team will deploy the feature to our customers. The news toolbar will allow website visitors to easily share and interact with your news stories. More specifically, visitors will be able to e-mail the story to a friend, print the story, export to PDF (portable document format), subscribe to an RSS feed, map the incident location, and post to F...

In response to recent server instabilities, our team has successfully tested and upgraded the web application server to a faster 64-bit environment. This upgraded software utilizes RAM (random access memory) much more efficiently, which has ultimately fixed the HTTP 503.0 errors some visitors we're seeing when viewing the websites. The guestbook spam issue has also been corrected. Originally, a CAPTCHA image was used on the guestbook entry form to ensure a human is processing the form, versus...

We have received multiple reports of issues with the guestbook feature. The guestbooks have recently fallen victim to Spam messages. It seems that the perpetrator has found a way to scan and read our CAPTCHA feature, which is supposed to alleviate Spam messages entirely. Our team is investigating the issue and we will be implementing a more robust CAPTCHA feature later this week. In the meantime, please feel free to delete the guestbook entries. There have also been reports of HTTP 503.0 er...

After significant testing, our team will be performing an upgrade on the e-mail servers on October 1, 2009 at 1:00 AM EST. We will be upgrading to SmarterMail 6.1. This process will not result in any loss of messages, preferences, or user settings, but it could slightly delay the flow of messages for a brief period while the install is taking place. A server restart is required during the installation process. SmarterMail 6.1 offers dozens of new features to improve the user and administrat...

Firehouse Solutions is pleased to announce our new and improved website and logo for 2009. After using a successful brand since 2003, our team decided that we needed to boost a new look and feel that better reflects our organization. The new website allows visitors to subscribe to us through RSS, Twitter, and YouTube. We are also working on many new and exciting features for our customers and will post these updates on our new website. The website is available via the following link: http://...

After thorough analysis and testing, Firehouse Solutions will make the following upgrades to our mail server, effective immediately: You may now auto-forward messages to AOL and Comcast e-mail addresses You may now create and manage mailing lists in SmarterMail Disk storage space for each domain has been increased to 3 gigabytes These changes we're made possible with our new dedicated server environment. A new mail server was introduced several months ago. This server provided us...

Our web team is proud to announce the launching of our newest service. FireServiceAds.com is an advertising network designed specifically for the fire service industry. The network allows advertisers to upload their banners and specifically target Firefighters and EMTs by advertising on local fire department websites directly. Revenue from the ad system is shared with the fire departments who have signed up to serve banner ads. This revenue is normally used to help with costs associated with ma...

After correcting a few minor issues, the Firefighter Profiles feature is ready for wide release. To manage the profiles, simply log into your Members Area and select Website Management > Profile Management. This will allow you to create profile records and assign which member will have access to update them. You can also manage Profile Fields and Types under the Field Lists menu in the Members Area. You will want to ensure that you have all of the text and memo fields set before populating i...

After several months of development and testing, our team is pleased to announce our newest feature, Firefighter Profiles. This feature allows a website to portray their bravest to the community and show off the men and women who operate your day-to-day operation. The profiles can be updated within the Members Area by users themselves. Each update will require approval from a website administrator. The Firefighter Profiles feature supports definable fields, questionnaire, and the ability to upl...