it looks like the same program, except the premium stuff is a subscription.

Which one do you need?

You need the premium service in order to import from the other programs, but if you don't have another program now, try the free version, see if you like it.

-David

For things that I use on a regular basis (BlackBerry, Flyertalk, Amazon etc.) I just remember them but for things that I don't, I use my Blackberry. I just look up the contact for that firm/site and work out what the password was in the details there, the things encrypted (and lock after a minute, so there is little chance of someone finding it and using the data. I may be overly cautious in not just storing some passwords directly on the Blackberry and putting them in buried in other data but it works for my piece of mind.

This is the method we have been using for a while now. I don't think we have yet been at it for a full year, rather we are still changing passwords as we run across those without the site letters included.
Although I am still on my husband to change his to something that includes lower case, upper case, numeric and symbols, but that comes from my days working with two dozen different passwords on a daily basis. And that was 20 years ago.

I feel your pain and I think anyone who is online today is in the same situation.

I sometimes need to reset passwords since I cannot remember what password I used for that site. What a pain.

Low tech here - I have an encrypted and pw protected Word doc that holds all my usernames and passwords. I'm satisfied that my password is sufficiently long and complicated that you could watch me type it in and still not get it. The major disadvantages to this approach: 1) Word is somewhat slow to load, 2) I don't have it with me on the rare occasions when I'm not at either my home, work, or mobile computers (though I can always remote into my home pc). Major advantages: 1) it's free, 2) I can include notes, e.g., on some websites I have a login name which is different from my customer account number, or I can show discount levels or contacts.

I've used Keepass for a couple of years, and I am endorsing it. Excellent free program, and very easy to safely transfer your encrypted file to other computers, thumb drives, etc, without risk.

I also use PasswordSafe, thought the screen shots of KeePass looks almost identical.

Do most of these programs that remember and/or create random passwords easily allow you to export/print all of the passwords? In case of a malfunction I like to store a copy of all accounts/passwords in a safe deposit box.

Currently, out of laziness, I use key chain on the mac but I don't find it useful if you use multiple computers.

Thanks.

I use acronyms (including punctuation where allowed) as my passwords. Most are taken from poetry in another language, with a deliberate error added, and I have a "reminder" word which will remind me of what the phrase I used is. Where possible I set it up so that the name of the site itself is a reminder of the password.

I seriously dislike websites that force me to use "security questions" - as far as I am concerned these are merely unsecure passwords! I also hate websites that force specific patterns or character types, or disallow punctuation. Logins that I'm forced to change frequently end up with a normal password appended with the date in mmyy format.

To give a practical example of my password methodology - The Lady Of The Lake. I misspell the acronym as "tlith!" and the reminder word is "Excalibur".

It is actually quite difficult to come up with good passwords with this technique - I require that all my passwords not look memorable and not be pronouncable, and at least 10 - 12 characters long. "tlitl" fails on all counts!

Audrey

> I use Lastpass

+1

Free, unless you want the iPhone edition, then it is $1/month. I have VERY
pleased with this utility.

-doug

I use a second email account and made a folder "passwords" along with others and use it only to store onfo that I my need to access somtime away from home.

Password overload is quite a bit of a hassle these days!!

I personally now use Lastpass, which according to the others on this thread is also popular here.

I am paying for the premium subscription, mainly because of its great integration with the Dolphin browser on Android, however I also use it with Yubikey.

Other alternatives are KeePass (open source and free) and Roboform. There are loads others but these are reckoned to be the best.

1Password is also popular, but I don't like the way you have to pay per device used. At least with Lastpass you pay once a year and it covers all your devices.

Also both Firefox and Chrome have built in password managers, but personally I think the security with something like Lastpass, KeePass, etc is much stronger than the built in options.

1passwd is pay once use anywhere, but they do charge separately for the app and pc versions. If you have 3 macs, you only pay once. If you have a mac and a pc, you have to buy the mac version and the pc version. But you don't have to pay more than once for each version, which is better than roboform.

roboform's license is per device. You need a separate license for each pc.

lastpass does seem to have the friendliest licensing terms. But the paid services are a subscription plan which is ongoing. It's cheap at $1 per month billed annually, but you have to keep paying if you want those services.

-David

Signup Shield
 

I use SignupShield on a Sandisk Cruzer. Since I provide PC support to my bride, she also uses the program on a separate Sandisk Cruzer. The program also fills out forms which is extremely helpful to my favorite contest enterer.

I regularly dump the passwords to a PDF that I print using CutePDF and store the output on a separate thumbdrive that never leaves the house. This gives me a backup in case 1) I lose my Cruzer or 2) the Cruzer fails.

SignupShiled includes a facility to generate a pw so I can increase the complexity of my PWs.

I'm three years into this exercise and so far I'm pleased.

HTH

I don't think so. Firefox and Chrome are open source and are in theory open to being vetted. Security vulnerabilities once found are rapidly addressed by the community. Can't know what is going on under the hood of these other systems, and for sure, any vulnerabilities aren't being checked out and announced to the world.

We are much, much safer with open source password "vaults".