Passwords

[imoldernu]

I was on the internet back into the 1980's, so when Passwords were needed. I used the same one for every service. Along the way, over the past 35+ years, I ave accumulated several hundred passwords. This was before password managers.

Now this has become a nightmare of changing, forgetting, required changes, and site and server changes. Ever more common, "Forgot Password?" and then the inevitable double confirmation of going back and trying to remember what Username and password I used last... going back to get a verification and then going back to the site, which I've now lost, in order to confirm.

Probably just as well. Time to wind down anyway. When I was teaching, I used to get 15 or twenty emails a day, with questions. Fortunately that has died off, as the people have died off.

Today I thought to check some of the many different email accounts (15) that I've had over the years. The ones I could get in to had hundreds of emails, going back many years.

Curious... anyone else in this situation?

 

[njhowie]

Yes, I remember the internet (Arpanet, Milnet, Bitnet, UUCP, etc.) back in the day...when getting an email was great excitement...maybe only 5 or 10 a week. I remember we had a map of the country up on the wall with all the servers comprising the internet at the time. When we wanted to send email outside our site we had to manually figure out the route from our node to the recipient's node and then construct the address going through all the intermediary nodes, which could come out to 100 characters or more. It would routinely come back undeliverable and we'd have to go through the addressing and make sure there were no typos, or any non-routing nodes in the path. Folks today don't really appreciate what happens when you hit that Send button.

As far as the problem you're experiencing...I just use gmail, and have it gmailify my 20 year old aol email...so those are the only two email accounts I need to remember. Between all of the financial accounts, and accounts for other sites - it is a massive headache and I find myself using Forgot Password links about once a week.

 

[Sunset]

I switched over to a password manager a few years ago, greatly simplified my life.

Back before the internet used BBS's to relay messages across the continent, felt amazing to communicate with folks without long distance charges and faster than letter mail.

What I hate is sometimes, a web site (example bank) will create a subdomain for some special part of itself, (example online payments). The fools sometimes use different password rules, so the original password to the bank won't work on the subdomain (and has to be the same password).

 

[njhowie]

Back before the internet used BBS's to relay messages across the continent, felt amazing to communicate with folks without long distance charges and faster than letter mail.

Great memories!

 

[davebarnes]

Find a password manager and use it.

 

[easysurfer]

Find a password manager and use it.

+1.

Password mangers make maintaining passwords fun. Okay, I won't get carried away. But at least less painful .

 

[MOSAT]

Since ER password H3LL has diminished dramatically. I only need to remember a few passwords the rest are in a password manager. Password managers were verboten at Mega!
I remember the Arpanet too. First j*b I had at a Minicorp had an account with a search service. You would call the service and spend a hour or so defining the search terms. A week or so later dot matrix print outs would arrive via mail with results consisting of article titles and a short abstract. You want the article you say? Please remit Meg$$$

 

[RetireAge50]

Doesn’t seem like I need to enter passwords much anymore. Mostly use my phone and thumbprint. I do have them stored in a database to reference as needed.

 

[marko]

I use Google's password manager.

Enter it once, confirm to 'save' and you're pretty much done. It also knows if you change your password as you sometimes have to do every few months depending on the site.

 

[MBAustin]

Just read an interesting article about a widely spreading spam e-mail that is scarier than usual because it includes your real e-mail address and a password that you might have actually used:

Hacked Account Blackmail Spam on the Rise

The article explains that there is really nothing to worry about despite the dire threats in the spam. Also it gives info about how they might have got your password and how you can check to see which of your passwords might be floating around out there.

 

[jim584672]

I remember BBS boards before the Internet was a thing. They would batch the messages and send them overnight.

I remember telling people about Internet and they didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about.

 

[kimcdougc]

Before I had open heart surgery to get an aortic valve replaced I typed up a password list with all our accounts info, how to pay the bills etc for my DH in case I didn't make it. I now update that list whenever I change a password, user name etc. Put the current date at the top. This master list is password protected on my password protected laptop.

Works for me and I don't leave my "passwords" out there with a 3rd party on line.

 

[Car-Guy]

Still keep my passwords on a spreadsheet (SS is password protected too) and is only kept on a USB stick (actually two USB's, one for backup).

 

[TwoByFour]

Still keep my passwords on a spreadsheet (SS is password protected too) and is only kept on a USB stick (actually two USB's, one for backup).

That works fine for a single device but most people these days have tons of devices - laptop, tablet, cell phone, smart TV, etc. Good password managers can accommodate all of these and centrally store the password DB so all devices are using the same DB. They also have plug-ins for browsers so that it can pull up the password manager when you are prompted for a password.

If all you use is Chrome, Google has integrated their password manager into Chrome so you have access to your password database on all platforms that Chrome is supported on.

We still use a local password manager but are going to switch to Google. The problem DW and I have is that we each have our own private passwords but we also have shared accounts (like our bank) and when I update that password on the account and in my password DB, it does not get updated for my wife's password DB. So we end up out-of-sync.

 

[Car-Guy]

That works fine for a single device but most people these days have tons of devices - laptop, tablet, cell phone, smart TV, etc.

Just 5 active devices here. Works for me.

 

[imoldernu]

OP here... Question on a password keeper.
What does it take to update all of my 143 passwords in a password keeper? Currently on my hard drive.

A one -step process? or do I have to input each one?... If the latter, afraid I may not live long enough to do it.

 

[imoldernu]

OP here... Question on a password keeper.
What does it take to update all of my 143 passwords in a password keeper? Currently on my Google drive.

A one -step process? or do I have to input each one?... If the latter, afraid I may not live long enough to do it.

Also, have 8 not quite up to date different devices. Will that make a difference to the PW manager?

 

[MissMolly]

Most password keepers can import from excel/csv file. If you have them in a spreadsheet it should be pretty simple to import.

 

[TwoByFour]

Just 5 active devices here. Works for me.

I must be missing something. If you're away from home, and you access a web site on your cell phone that requires a password that is in your Excel spread sheet, what do you do?

 

[imoldernu]

Most password keepers can import from excel/csv file. If you have them in a spreadsheet it should be pretty simple to import.

Thanks... I was hoping... Will give it a try when my mind is working well.

 

[Rianne]

LastPass automatically installed on my phone. I always completely log out after using. Same password as on iMac. When you click on a website, Lastpass automatically asks if you want to register that ID and password. You can say no. If you say yes, it sends it to the vault where all your ID/password accounts are.

 

[imoldernu]

LastPass automatically installed on my phone. I always completely log out after using. Same password as on iMac. When you click on a website, Lastpass automatically asks if you want to register that ID and password. You can say no. If you say yes, it sends it to the vault where all your ID/password accounts are.

That's even better. I looked, but couldn't find that info on line. thanks...

 

[Chuckanut]

I believe most password managers will export the information in commonly used formats. Of course, at that point they are unencrypted and very vulnerable so treat them like gold.

They will also import password info from some of the other managers and browsers.

 

[Bamaman]

I've probably got 50 passwords presently. I've been thru the kids' names and the grandkids' names and the dog and cat names. Now I'm into nicknames.

And I'm not dumb enough to keep them on my computer in Microsoft Word. I've got the passwords on a piece of paper and it's kept in my safe.

Now if I could just remember where I put the combination to my safe, I'd be in good shape.

 

[Car-Guy]

I must be missing something. If you're away from home, and you access a web site on your cell phone that requires a password that is in your Excel spread sheet, what do you do?

No you are not missing anything. I carry a lightweight laptop (w/USB port) when I'm traveling w/Internet access VIA wireless (cell or 802.11x). All my general account access (except email which my smartphone is in sync with my email account) is done VIA the laptop. Works for me. My smartphone is just used for quick email reading/responding, texting and monitoring the markets on the go. (And sometimes I talk on the phone too.)