PC utilities: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords
- 2/27/09 4:58 PM
passwords
by ricks19 - 2/28/09 8:05 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I feel your pain. Passwords are needed for most every website these days & it is tough to keep track of them in your head. I have gone with a basic word like a brand name and attach a number to it. I either capitalize the first or last letter - for example: Kraft200; krafT200; KrafT201. The brand could be something you use often like "Dunkin1223"; dunkiN1223.
If you can't exactly remember which one you used for a website, you can try each pattern and finally it will work. The number at the end is usually a house number; an office number; a birthday; an anniversary date; a model number of your printer; your PC; any number that you can glace over at if you are not sure.
That's how I've been dealing with passwords for years & it has worked. Some recommend not using a common word like dog or bike or telephone or your kid's name. I agree with that. A hacker has to go through a lot of brand names to find yours - and perhaps there is a brand that you find unique like "fourpoints" or "jiffylube".
Good Luck.
R.M. Rock
Phrase Express
by rgfitz - 2/28/09 8:07 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have used this free program for years:
http://www.phraseexpress.com/download.htm
password mania
by kaluskamom - 2/28/09 8:08 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had the same problem. I bought RoboForm and that solved all my problems. It will remember your passwords and also fill in forms for you. I love it.
Passwords
by cdpohl - 2/28/09 8:12 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Get Robocop. It'll do a great job remembering. All you need to know is how click the mouse button.
C. Pohl
KISS, keep it simple
by stozier - 2/28/09 8:17 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Find a word that is easy for you to remember and easy to type for the root of all passwords. Make it six characters since most passwords require that as a minimum. If the site requires a number, affix 01 in case you are forced to change it, you have 99 variations before returning to the original.
For example, jackle, jackle01. Then when you go to a site, you only have to remember the base word and work from there.
Mozilla saves userids and passwords for you and allows you to access the data. Also, an add-on called InFormEnter allows you to store sets of data, accessible with a mouse click on any data entry box, userid's and passwords can also be stored there.
Another aid is to get a domain name ($20/yr) and use the site and your domain as your userid, i.e. cnet@jackle.com. Easily remembered userids, how cool is that. With the added benefit of knowing when a site is selling your email address to spammers.
Here's how I manage my passwords
by robin98 - 2/28/09 8:22 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
1. Whenever possible, use the same username and password. I know, not recommended but it works for sites lie CNET. I keep an email address with Hotmail because it is less likely to change when your Internet provider changes. Otherwise, I use a somewhat generic, anonymous username such as a bird, or similar.
2. At work, I write them into a notebook I keep in a drawer.
3. The rest, I keep in my PDA. I use a Palm and "Keyring." It is encrypted and only my wife knows the password, just in case, you know.
Me too!
by Cja - 2/28/09 8:22 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have a terrible time remembering all my passwords - we have 3 just to log in at work! SO I made up a formula which helps me. Then I keep a cryptic reminder undecipherable to anyone else.
for example change some letters for numbers and put the word no in your reminder. ie p00l is 'no swimming' as a reminder with zero instead of o.
Sometimes I use the first image in my head as a password. For example Amazon reminds me of the river Amazon so my password might be 'rainforest'. This only works if you have a consistent image associated with the website. For BT (a uselss British telephone provider) I use 'ursocrap'. It reminds me of them alright.
finally when the password is not protecting money transactions and is not that important I have one I use all the time - my backup password. I can change this a little with my formula - ie 'no picnic' as a reminder might mean 'p1cn1c' as a password.
Hope this helps - writing a clue down is the only way really, just make your clues to a formula and have fun.
cja
A simple idea
by Baron83 - 2/28/09 8:31 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Unless you live with people you don't trust, here's a semi-safe solution from an old geezer with similar memory problems. I keep a file of passwords, but it's in a file with another label, like "music" or "old pictures," something nobody would want to snoop in. As long as you remember the name of the file, you can find your passwords easily.
Managing Passwords
by Thomasjcat - 2/28/09 8:37 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I use a little add-on for Firefox called LastPass, it can generate passwords of any length and it saves them on-line which easy to access, I've been using it for about 2 Months with no problems.
A pretty simple solution
by Thioux - 2/28/09 8:37 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If you have Microsoft Office 2007, there's a program on there that is called "One Note" which is a slick thing to use as a virtual notebook. I'm not going to go into all the ins and outs of the program, but what I can tell you we've done in our household is we've listed links to all the websites we frequent that require a screen name and password. The note itself is password protected so really, all we have to do is remember one password and all the other passwords are contained in this note. One Note is a great program to use in place of the hundreds of scrap pieces of paper lying around the desk! For example, When my husband go into an accident, he was able to have a note with the claim numbers, name and address of the person who rammed him, the repair facility, etc. It's a really slick little program to use.
The answert to your question is ROBOFORM!
by gchenarides - 2/28/09 8:40 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Quite a few years ago I had the same question and problem and I came across this program and have used it diligently all this time with never an issue.
I used my favorite passwords and in some instances I let ROBOFORM create one for me and when I open something that requires a password I have set up, it opens automatically to insert the password associated with that site..
It keeps a backup of all your passwords and there is a setting that requires one personal password to view details in order to prevent someone else using your computer from seeing any of the passwords you use in the program.
The bottom line is there is no fear of compromise and it's a great program that I recommend to anyone having password memory or security issues.
Help! I'm at my wits and trying to manage my passwords
by ajitwelling - 2/28/09 8:50 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi
I think I am also at the same situation because of wrong side of the age. I will tell you what I did and it does help my simplify though not solve the problem.
I have prepared a word document which stores all my password and account information. I have protected this word document with my favourite and simple password. This word document should be assigned a name which should be misleading to others users of your computer (if any), such as- Resume of Ajit, Letter to daughter, travelogue of Southern vacation etc. You may also store youe password in a confusing manner such as - only first three characters, Alternate characters, characters in a reverse order, password with one or two missing characters etc.
This should work for you. Buying a tool is a good idea but you can not take this tool on a move whereas the password document can be mailed to your personal account and accessed from anywhere.
The only challenge with this is to update this document with latest addition and changes.
One precaution: NEVER print this document
Hope this simple solution works for you..
Regards
Ajit
Try a Password manager
by Peter Bickford - 2/28/09 8:51 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Mine is RoboForm Pro it cost $15 to $20 on type you want. You can you go with there RoboForm Lite verion for free to see if you like it. You pay only one time and upgrade are free which make it a sweet deal. Here is the website ( http://www.roboform.com/bundles.html ) so you can check it out and ask CNET about them, also run a search on cnet download area to see what cnet editor say about it.
Password storage
by sspogman - 2/28/09 8:56 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Personally I can thoroughly recommend Keymaker (softnik technologies). It is a password generator with a difference, unlike all others I have seen, it works from a keyword (or phrase). If the keyword is the same, the password is the same... and a word (favourite author or whatever) is much easier to remember.
As a backup to that I use a password safe (Pins4) which I keep of the computer on a pendrive for security.
This combination works famously for me, even with online banking, I can change my password monthly with no fear of forgetting it; I use a keyword and month addendum so that I don't even need to store it anywhere.
There are loads of random password generators out there, but you still have to remember the number - not keymaker.
Hope you agree.
regards,
My password solution
by dickmceuen - 2/28/09 8:59 AM In reply to: Help! I'm at my wits end trying to manage my passwords by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
In addition to William's problem of not getting younger, I have the problem of using more than one PC - keeping the passwords straight among all copies of the browser didn't work well. I now use RoboForm on my personal PC, with a carefully constructed master password that I can easily remember. Then I got a USB memory drive (thumb drive), and I have RoboFormToGo on it. There is a small cost, but I find Roboform very helpful. It is easy to keep my PC and USB-drive passwords synchronized, and I can use the USB drive on any PC without worrying about password security or lack of synchronization. And RoboForm does more for me, too; helps greatly in filling in forms on shopping websites. I hope William finds this suggestion useful.
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