Password Manager

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:31:33 -0500, JCO wrote:
The password manager is not the only place to store your passwords. They
should all be keep in a word document or excel spreadsheet that gets printed

Or....

Use a password manager that is happy on a USB stick, like KeePass
that I mentioned yesterday. I have the program on my computer and
the stick, and a copy of the database on each. I just have to
remember to resync the database when I add or change a password, but
I have a batch file that does that when it synchronizes all sorts of
other stuff.



--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:57:53 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
Since the question came up somewhere, let me mention that it does let
you save credit card information and other non-login stuff. I do that a
lot.

Yes, me too. I even save the license strings for various pieces of
software. (In the past, when I validated a piece of software, I
didn't save the license string. Now, with the new computer, I have to
give up using some programs because I no longer have the license
strings. That won't happen again, since now they're all in KeePass.)

Naturally, I save (i.e., back up) my KeePass data in several places.
None of them are clear text on paper :-)

Yup! Computer, USB stick, and daily backups. (Monthly backups also
get burned to DVD.)

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:31:33 -0500, "JCO"
wrote:

The password manager is not the only place to store your passwords. They
should all be keep in a word document or excel spreadsheet that gets printed
out or saved in multiple locations to prevent loss from a computer crash.

The password manager is simply used for everyday form filling. Always back
it up on paper and/or multiple locations (ie; flash drive).

JCO, if you're tryin' to be witty, I think you made it to about the
half way point.

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:49:33 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
wrote:

In message
Antares 531 wrote:
On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:31:33 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

On 17/10/2010 18:05, JCO wrote:
Using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits

I use to use Norton's Password Manager when running Windows XP but it is
not compatible for Windows 7. I was wondering if anybody know what I can
use. My preference is to find a FREE one that I can download. If that
does not work, I'm not against purchasing one. I would like a password
manager that automatically fills in the Form (with name address, and
options to what credit card to use)

Thanks



No, no, no! Very dangerous! Leaves a lot open to simple hacking.

Don't be so damn lazy! And you'll be safer against identity fraud and
other ways of becoming poor very quickly.

Ed

I quite agree, Ed. The best method I've found for keeping my passwords
safe, yet easy for me to access is to use a familiar book for my
password characters. I prefer to use an old hymn book, then pick a
specific hymn for each site that requires a password. I use the page
number, the hymn number and the first letters of the chorus or
favorite verse. This can all be noted in a cryptic way such that no
intruder could figure out what it is all about, yet if I forget a
password I can look at this cryptic note and get enough of a hint to
lead me to the page/hymn number/verse that I had used. Then, it is
easy for me to refresh my memory and get the password information
right.

And my encrypted keychain is about 10 billion times more secure than
your hymnal.

It doesn't have to be a hymnal. Any book such as a poetry or popular
song book, etc., that you can remember the items you've selected,
would work just as well. The reason I mentioned a hymnal was that most
people are familiar with some of those songs, and can easily
remember/associate a given song with a given password. And, it is easy
to remember which book on your shelf to look into if you forget the
password. But, an intruder would not have any leads as to what your
source of password setup was.

Gordon

"JCO" wrote in message
...
Using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits

I use to use Norton's Password Manager when running Windows XP but it is
not compatible for Windows 7. I was wondering if anybody know what I can
use. My preference is to find a FREE one that I can download. If that
does not work, I'm not against purchasing one. I would like a password
manager that automatically fills in the Form (with name address, and
options to what credit card to use)

Thanks


Go to alt.comp.freeware and ask there. You'll find more good freeware
recommended there than you can imagine ever existed. I haven't bought
software in years.

Why don't you use the Briefcase to keep it in sync?


"Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:31:33 -0500, JCO wrote:
The password manager is not the only place to store your passwords. They
should all be keep in a word document or excel spreadsheet that gets
printed

Or....

Use a password manager that is happy on a USB stick, like KeePass
that I mentioned yesterday. I have the program on my computer and
the stick, and a copy of the database on each. I just have to
remember to resync the database when I add or change a password, but
I have a batch file that does that when it synchronizes all sorts of
other stuff.



--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

I'm playing with this now and it seems to work. Does it have a way to
automatically detect the website so that the auto-fill works better.
Example, my Norton Password Manager (that won't work on 64 bit Win7) runs in
the background. When you go to a website that requires an auto-fill (that
has been memorized), it will prompt me with a little window in the lower
right corner. I click a single button and it's done.
Thanks

"Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:05:46 -0500, JCO wrote:

Using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits

I use to use Norton's Password Manager when running Windows XP but it is
not
compatible for Windows 7. I was wondering if anybody know what I can
use.
My preference is to find a FREE one that I can download.

I strongly recommend KeePass (or KeepAss, as I like to pronounce it).
It stores user names, passwords, URLs, and any text you like. It can
automatically fill this stuff in when you hit a designated key
combination. It works out of the box with most sites, where username
[Tab] password [Enter], is the right thing, and you can customize the
sequence for the odd exception. Yes, it's 100% free.

http://keepass.info/

I learned about it through Lifehacker.com. I have a copy on my USB
stick, so that I can have my passwords for use on other computers.
(Yes, the database is encrypted, so even if I lose the USB stick
others can't access my bank accounts.)

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On 18/10/2010 21:50, JCO wrote:
Thanks Lewis,
I will add this to my list for review.


Another one to try - I've been using PINS for years.

Runs ok under XPx32 and Win7x64. Hasn't been updated for years, thus
proving "If it ain't broke don't fix it".
http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/pins.html

--

Jeff

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:54:02 +0100, Bob Henson wrote:

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:39:03 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
wrote:

In message
Bob Henson wrote:
On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 02:19:13 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
wrote:

In message
Stan Brown wrote:
On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:31:33 -0500, JCO wrote:
The password manager is not the only place to store your passwords. They
should all be keep in a word document or excel spreadsheet that gets printed

Or....

Use a password manager that is happy on a USB stick, like KeePass
that I mentioned yesterday. I have the program on my computer and
the stick, and a copy of the database on each. I just have to
remember to resync the database when I add or change a password, but
I have a batch file that does that when it synchronizes all sorts of
other stuff.

I would never print out passwords, that's just asking for trouble.

My password database is stored on DropBox, which means it on stored on 4
Macs as well as DropBox's cloud servers. It is also in my TimeMachine
backup. It's not going anywhere, and no chance of someone else accessing
it.

Are you entirely happy with your passwords being on the cloud?

Yep. they are stored there in an encrypted format. Safe as houses.


The only
place I wouldn't keep mine is on a server over which I have no control,
and cannot guarantee that it won't be down when I want them, or lost
along with many other people's.

Since I keep so many copies on so many machines, the chances of losing
them ALL are so remote there's no point thinking about it. Multiple
accidentals nuclear explosions are about as likely.

I was thinking more of theft than loss. He who encrypts can also
decrypt.

Not with modern encryption methods, as long as you create - and keep
secret - the password.

Regards,

Bob


--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:26:28 -0500, Antares 531 wrote:

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:49:33 +0000 (UTC), Lewis
wrote:

In message
Antares 531 wrote:
On Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:31:33 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

On 17/10/2010 18:05, JCO wrote:
Using Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bits

I use to use Norton's Password Manager when running Windows XP but it is
not compatible for Windows 7. I was wondering if anybody know what I can
use. My preference is to find a FREE one that I can download. If that
does not work, I'm not against purchasing one. I would like a password
manager that automatically fills in the Form (with name address, and
options to what credit card to use)

Thanks



No, no, no! Very dangerous! Leaves a lot open to simple hacking.

Don't be so damn lazy! And you'll be safer against identity fraud and
other ways of becoming poor very quickly.

Ed

I quite agree, Ed. The best method I've found for keeping my passwords
safe, yet easy for me to access is to use a familiar book for my
password characters. I prefer to use an old hymn book, then pick a
specific hymn for each site that requires a password. I use the page
number, the hymn number and the first letters of the chorus or
favorite verse. This can all be noted in a cryptic way such that no
intruder could figure out what it is all about, yet if I forget a
password I can look at this cryptic note and get enough of a hint to
lead me to the page/hymn number/verse that I had used. Then, it is
easy for me to refresh my memory and get the password information
right.

And my encrypted keychain is about 10 billion times more secure than
your hymnal.

It doesn't have to be a hymnal. Any book such as a poetry or popular
song book, etc., that you can remember the items you've selected,
would work just as well. The reason I mentioned a hymnal was that most
people are familiar with some of those songs, and can easily
remember/associate a given song with a given password. And, it is easy
to remember which book on your shelf to look into if you forget the
password. But, an intruder would not have any leads as to what your
source of password setup was.

Gordon

Even given the book, and possibly even knowing your algorithm, the sheer
combinatorics of the hymnal contents would keep me from breaking into
your system.

If worse comes to worse, you can switch to James Joyces's "Ulysses" :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 20:47:10 -0400, Stan Brown wrote:

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:44:48 -0700, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
Back to seriousness: I use KeePass Password Safe (free and open source
at http://keepass.info/).

I don't think it will log in for me

Not sure what you mean here. It logs in to all sorts of sites for
me.

See
Message-ID:
where I acknowledged my error - in a response to you, of all people :-)

Note the use of the phrase "I don't *think* it will log in for me"
above. The ignorance was a penalty of never trying to do it, since I
don't care to log in automatically, and of course a failure to RTFM in
the heat of turbo posting (whatever that might mean!).

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:05:37 +0100, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 18/10/2010 21:50, JCO wrote:
Thanks Lewis,
I will add this to my list for review.


Another one to try - I've been using PINS for years.

Runs ok under XPx32 and Win7x64. Hasn't been updated for years, thus
proving "If it ain't broke don't fix it".
http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/pins.html

When it comes to security, "hasn't been updated in years" doesn't
exactly lend credibility. I would stay far away.

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:22:49 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

Even given the book, and possibly even knowing your algorithm, the sheer
combinatorics of the hymnal contents would keep me from breaking into
your system.

If worse comes to worse, you can switch to James Joyces's "Ulysses" :-)

Other options might be "War and Peace" and "A Tale of Two Cities."

I think I'll stick with Roboform! Using a book, how are you supposed
to remember the page-paragraph-word info?

On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:19:21 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

Not with modern encryption methods, as long as you create - and keep
secret - the password.

One way algorithms... The analogy I've always seen is that you can run
some pork through a grinder and make sausage, but you can't turn
around and run the sausage through a second time and expect to get
pork. Or something like that.

I downloaded it too. Thanks.. I will give it a try.

"Just Judy" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:46:49 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:31:33 -0500, JCO wrote:

The password manager is not the only place to store your passwords.
They
should all be keep in a word document or excel spreadsheet that gets
printed
out or saved in multiple locations to prevent loss from a computer
crash.

That would hardly be secure, unless you store the file in an encrypted
drive, such as with TrueCrypt.

I've used Password Corral since at least 2001; a printed copy
of the passwords rests in my bank's safety deposit box. I've prevented
anyone from committing the dastardly deed of hacking my bank account
and stealing my $17.42.

--
Judy~
http://www.frugalsites.net/911/sept11.html