SmarterMail 7 and Server Upgrades

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:47:25 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/21/smartermail-7-and-server-upgrades.aspx Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:47:25 GMT newsitem21 After a thorough test and review, our team will be performing an upgrade on the e-mail server on August 12, 2010 at 1:00 AM EST. We will be upgrading the mail server to SmarterMail 7. 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 7 offers dozens of new features to improve the user and administrator experience, including improved searching, synchronization center, redesigned webmail interface, file storage, follow-up flagging, linked tasks, and much more. Further information on SmarterMail 7 can be found at http://www.smartertools.com/smartermail/mail-server-software.aspx.

We're also happy to inform you that we've adjusted the Website Disk Space from 2 Gigabytes to 4 Gigabytes. We're also adjusting the E-mail Disk Space from 2 Gigabytes to 4 Gigabytes. These allocations are established per customer (not per user).

We hope you enjoy the new upgrade. As always, let us know if you have any questions.

Password Requirements

Thu, 27 May 2010 17:01:51 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/20/password-requirements.aspx Thu, 27 May 2010 17:01:51 GMT newsitem20 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
Require a lower case letter
Cannot match username

The guidelines have been heavily researched by our team and are common practice among many secure websites throughout the Internet. We encourage you to send this announcement to your users and ask them to update their passwords within SmarterMail and the Members Area. After July 1, 2010 the servers will "force" users that do not meet the password requirements to update their password upon login.

The primary objective of this change is to ensure a safe and secure online environment for all users. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us via Support@FirehouseSolutions.com.

Introducing News Toolbar and More

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:47:50 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/19/introducing-news-toolbar-and-more.aspx Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:47:50 GMT newsitem19

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 Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, or any other social network.

Additionally, we have made adjustments to the web browser title bar so that the news title will appear depending on which story the visitor is viewing. This promotes more organized bookmarking and helps with search engine placement.

Server Stability, Guestbook Spam, and Content Management

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:26:52 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/18/server-stability-guestbook-spam-and-content-management.aspx Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:26:52 GMT newsitem18 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 an automated computer. Our first attempt to alleviate guestbook spam was to set the CAPTCHA image difficulty setting from low to high. After several days of testing, this method proved to be unsuccessful. We we're finally able to fix the issue by deploying a mathematical question to the user to solve. This has proved to be extremely effective. Since the fix, our team has also removed any "existing" spam messages found in the guestbooks.

Finally, we have upgraded the HTML editing tool within the content management section. The tool includes a cleaner interface, better performance, and intuitive image management. Feel free to start using the new editing tool by simply editing your web pages. As always, let us know if you have any questions.

Guestbook Entries and Website Server Errors

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:15:48 GMT

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 errors which cause the websites to go down. This error message is a result of a memory overflow problem on the server and is actively being analyzed by our network team. We hope to eradicate the problem as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience as we work through these issues.

SmarterMail 6 Upgrade Information

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:35:55 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/16/smartermail-6-upgrade-information.aspx Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:35:55 GMT newsitem16

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 administrator experience, including Silverlight reports and charts, new message attachment features, and user-definable columns for contacts, calendars, and tasks. It also includes a new and robust mailing list program with advanced features normally only found in stand-alone mass mailing applications.

Finally, SpamAssassin is now a built-in engine versus an external application. This allows for more powerful pattern matching and faster delivery times. We hope you enjoy the new upgrade. As always, let us know if you have any questions.

Firehouse Solutions Introduces New Website and Logo

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:42:07 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/15/firehouse-solutions-introduces-new-website-and-logo.aspx Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:42:07 GMT newsitem15 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://www.FirehouseSolutions.com

As always, we value the support received by our customers, subscribers, vendors, and the fire service community.

SmarterMail Features Released and More

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:27:13 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/14/smartermail-features-released-and-more.aspx Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:27:13 GMT newsitem14 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 with a ton of disk space along with a faster processor, which allowed our team to allocate more features.

We have also added spam filtering to outgoing SMTP connections. This allows us to auto-forward e-mail messages to AOL and Comcast after Spam has been removed. So we can ensure that the probability of us being blacklisted in minimal.

We hope you enjoy these upgrades!

Introducing FireServiceAds.com

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:36:16 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/13/introducing-fireserviceadscom.aspx Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:36:16 GMT newsitem13 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 maintaining a website, recruiting new members, and other fire prevention activities.

This is an opt-in program for Firehouse Solutions customers, as well as any other fire department website wishing to generate revenue through their website. If your interested in signing up, you can do so through FireServiceAds.com.

Firefighter Profiles Instructions

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:57:18 GMT

http://support.firehousesolutions.com/News/12/firefighter-profiles-instructions.aspx Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:57:18 GMT newsitem12 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 information into the profiles. A few default fields have been set and can be altered quite easily.

Finally, we ask that you open a support ticket by e-mailing us at Support@FirehouseSolutions.com. Please define which section(s) you would like the profile feature to replace. The feature can replace multiple sections as long as they are defined as profile types. For example, you may want to replace sections called Officers, Board of Directors, and Members. The profile feature can replace each of these sections as long as there are profile types called Officers, Board of Directors, and Members.

As always, let us know if you have any questions. Thanks from the FS Team.

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