Saturday 22 October 2011

Tips for Remembering Your Passwords.

By Eric James


Everyone is increasingly growing dependent upon technology, the Internet and computers. Every single day, tens of millions of men or women surf the web for entertainment, work and pleasure. The time spent on the web is growing for all of us as many more applications become available. Everyone can now watch episodes of our favorite programs on the web, order groceries and pay bills. But, this means that we are storing more information on the Internet than previously. However, this also means that quite often you fail to remember your passwords, especially passwords that are complicated or have been given to us by website owners.

In the event that you do lose your passwords, the essential thing to remember is not to fret or panic. This happens often to all users. If you do lose your password, the majority of sites allow you to submit a password forgotten ticket. This will allow you to create a new password. This should typically be straight forward and automatic but it is often a hassle. Sometimes you might need to contact the administrator to obtain a new password. This creates additional problems though, sometimes you will forget the security questions! Once again, no one should be concerned since website owners are familiar with people forgetting their account details. You might have to contact the webmaster and provide evidence the account belongs to you though.

What should you do if you keep forgetting passwords? Well, prevention is often the best cure. There are a lot of strategies to help never forget your passwords again. First of all, many browsers offer you the ability to save username and password details to the browser. This option is quite handy as you will not have to fill in the username and password information whenever you visit the website. However, this is actually quite unsafe and should only be done if you are sure the information is definitely safe (in other words do not use this feature if you share a computer or it is located in a public place). Moreover, storing your username and password details to your web browser only helps you for one computer. Should you go to another computer and forget your password, you will not be able to access the saved information from your home computer.

An alternative option is to use online password management software. These enable you to save username and password information just like with your web browser but instead you save them on a website. To do this, sign-up for a password manager service and start saving your password details. You will then always be able to retrieve your username and password regardless of where you are and regardless of the time. Many websites may also even have form filling functionality which automatically submits your username and password details. This takes out a lot of the annoyance that may impede your browsing experience. Many online password management services also feature book marking functionalities. You could use one service to bookmark favorite sites and then save username and passwords for them. This is an excellent tip at saving time. You may find that you waste a lot of time on the net and by using these services you can make surfing the web less of a chore.

It should be noted that is important to maintain safe password practices. You should never tell anyone your passwords and you should have a secure password. Your passwords should be 8 characters long or more and be made up of a random selection of numbers and letters (if you want to be safer then include upper and lower cased characters and special characters such as ! or $). However, the safer your password is, the harder it is to remember it which is why online password managers are very useful. In conclusion, if you forget a password or are worried your passwords are not safe enough then you should definitely try a password manager to manage your account information for you.




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