Monday, October 15, 2012

These Passwords Are Killing Me!

I used to be naive about Internet passwords. I had two: one for financial pages like Amazon and the bank, one for everything else. After ten million people told me how careless that was, I finally started setting up different ones for just about every place.

And, naturally, I began forgetting them. I tried making them familiar but with a twist -- marylinandbob -- but I couldn't remember which part I had deliberately misspelled and how.

I tried connecting them to the site they were for -- deargodi'mfreezingtodeathherepleasemakeitsummeragainpleasepleasei'llneverwhineaboutheatagainifyoudo for the utility company. But I'd forget -- is it freezing for the gas company which provides our heat or sweltering for the electric company which provides our AC? Was I having a hot flash when I made up the password or trying to find feeling in my blue toes?

Then I began writing them down. On slips of paper. That were NEVER where I needed them. Yes, iTunes, that's why I've changed my password seventy-two times.

Finally a friend mentioned she used an address book to keep track of hers. Aha! The light bulb came on (and apparently I was safe with the electric company for another few weeks).

Do you know how hard it is to find simple little address books? Ugh.

I did buy a teensy little notebook, and now all my passwords are safely in one place. If I can just remember where I put it . . .

8 comments:

  1. Uhm, there is a software program called Password Safe that can store all your passwords. All you need is one unique password to access it. http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
    Next time, just ask the chick married to the IT geek, 'kay?

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    1. You know, MAG, I just don't think in those terms. It never occurred to me that there was a program for that. Then I'd only have to remember the one, right? Too cool!

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  2. I keep mine in an address book, too, Marilyn. Trouble is, it's usually at work when I'm at home and vice versa. LOL. I'm just glad we can change them.

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    1. Mine are in the office and I'm in the house or vice versa. And I could never take the notebook off the property, because sure as anything, I'd lose it. And I hate change. :(

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  3. I bought an app for mine. Now they're all on my phone and iPad. :)

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    1. Aw, does everyone in the universe have a smart phone but me?? I'm still resisting the lure while my water-resistant, dust-resistant, drop-resistant, vibration-resistant flip phone holds onto life.

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  4. I read a tip somewhere and I've used it. The tip is: use the same password but tack on a couple of letters (or numbers if required) to the end of it that fit the site. So if your password is "password" and the site is iTunes, you would use "passwordit". If the site is Bank of America and it requires a number you can use your birth year or the year you opened the account, it would be "passwordba12".

    But I still forget some of them! So I put them in an address book that always stays with my computer and I also put them in the address book on my computer which updates to my iPod Touch. I don't have a smart phone.

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    1. Good advice, Christy! I've also learned one other thing: don't make them too difficult to type. I have to change one password this week because I capitalized random letters and a couple of them turned out to be letters that I frequently mistype, like V for C and N for M. Like it's not bad enough that I mistype my email address every other time . . . :)

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