Recent News

Killing the Spam

Over the past few months, our team received feedback from customers indicating that unwanted spam was clogging many user accounts. In a few cases, the spam was so intense that it caused accounts to become unusable. In response, we contacted SmarterTools and hired a mail server engineer to reevaluate the security settings on our server. The following mail server adjustments have been made across all domains:

- Deactivate SpamAssassin Pattern Matching - Activate...

[SmarterStats] Firehouse Solutions has recently upgraded our Statistics Server to the newest version, SmarterStats 7.0. This version of SmarterStats offers many new features which include:

- Site Tuning Functionality - Interface Enhancements for Mobile Devices - Support for .ZIP and .GZ files - New Report Items - Better Browser Detection - Page Details View - Improved Bot Detection

Remember, administrators can access SmarterStats directly from the Members Area by logging in and...

[Sign Up Here]Firehouse Solutions will be deploying our Sign Up Sheets feature in your Members Area on Tuesday, November 1, 2011. Sign Up Sheets support functions that requires member participation. They can be used for events, drills, bingo, duty nights, and much more. Each sign up sheet supports an unlimited number of groups, which is often used to specify apparatus, and slots (or positions).

Sign Up Sheets can be created by any member, however, they can be managed by a Sign Up...

Users may now add attachments to announcements created in the Members Area. When creating an announcement, simply click Add Attachments > Add Files. Then select the files from your computer and press Upload. This particular feature is powered by Flash, which is installed on 99% of Internet-enabled computers. The upload tool allows users to select multiple files, remove files, and view upload progress bars.

Over the next few months, we plan to test and implement this same upload tool...

Firehouse Solutions has recently upgraded SmarterStats to Version 6.3. The newest version has a redesigned interface, new reporting items, dual axis charting, and many more exciting features which allow administrators to view the most accurate and detailed statistics for your website.

Through an effort to integrate SmarterStats with your website, we have provided the following Website Statistics feature, which is available to administrators:

1. Log into the Members Area 2. Under the...

We hope that everyone is having a safe and happy holiday season! We have been working on several new features that will be implemented on Wednesday, January 5, 2011.

Mainly, we have redesigned the Members Area application and Online Members listing. The new application, seen on the Southern Maryland Volunteer Firemen's Association, is less complicated. It also allows our team to set custom fields for your organization, such as Station, Department ID, etc.

Additionally...

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...

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...

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...

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...