We’ve all done it …written down the username and password for a site we need to access and then forget where we’ve put it! So frustrating.

I have to say I was a little sceptical about using a password manager. I originally thought “I’ve only got a couple of online accounts”. I’m also pretty good at recording stuff like that manually, a bit pedantic you could say! So why would I possibly want to setup and manage yet another software ‘gadget’ that I would probably use for a couple of weeks then forget all about?

My brother finally persuaded me to have a try …we then carried out some research and decided upon the best password manager available today – RoboForm.

What a great decision!

The amount of time it has saved me cannot be imagined. I now have 154 logins setup. Each one stores my user name; password and any secret question & answer details.

It also stores the exact url or internet address so I KNOW that I’m on the right site so I’m less likely to be subject of phishing scams …very common now, particularly with bank emails & sites.

Previously I used one of three passwords for everything. Not a particularly good idea …but I couldn’t remember more than that and still recall which password was used for what site! Now I typically use a 16 character password, a string of meaningless characters – these are examples:

u8N7V54837b5L456

89x8ga2274mM272S

Generated instantly by the password generator within the software and copied immediately into the encrypted database, I don’t have to even try to remember them …it’s all done for me …how cool is that!

The encryption system requires a single password; the only one you will need to remember in future! When this is entered, you can use an on-screen keypad so that key logging software could not capture your keystrokes. Once you have entered the master password, you can set the period for which this master password is ‘remembered’ (or cached) by the system Viagra Professional so you don’t need to re-enter it every time you want to access a site for up to 2 hours before automatically logging you out.

All this information is a single click from any of my main browsers; so whether you use Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, they’re all supported.

With additional modules it is possible to use an online resource to back-up the encrypted database, to install the software onto a USB key and carry it with you such that the information is available on whichever computer you happen to be using or for use on mobile devices. Even if you lost the USB key the data is secure because the encryption is AES, the same as has now become the standard encryption used by the government in the USA and is becoming standard worldwide.

When the software is initially installed you are prompted to populate the database with your personal information; everything from name, addresses and phone numbers through to bank & credit card details. As I mentioned before, I was a little coy about putting all this data into a bit of software on a machine with access to the internet albeit secured behind firewall, anti-virus and anti-malware screening packages. However, some investigation into the AES encryption methodology employed by RoboForm left me feeling quite smug!

The encryption algorithm is such that it would likely take a 1000 years using today’s most powerful computers to ‘break’ this system using the ‘brute force’ method of trying every possible combination for a 16 character password …so we really needn’t worry too much!

Three very critical issues are:

1) Do NOT lose your master password! There is no ‘backdoor’ into the database; if you lose the master password you’re in for a 1000 year wait unless you have taken the very wise precaution of printing the full database record and securing this ‘hard copy’.

2) The entry of the master password should be carried out using the on-screen buy real propecia keypad to preclude key-loggers.

3) Do NOT allow ANYONE access to your master password under any circumstances.

Once you have entered all of your data securely into RoboForm you can start to use the many valuable functions contained therein. I list a few here to demonstrate the value I now place on this tool-set.

Go to the login page to a site for which you have an existing username & password e.g. Twitter. Enter your details and click ‘login’. RoboForm will present a dialogue box asking if you wish to create a Passcard for this website. From then on it’s a single click to take you to the site and log you in! Cool eh!

If you have a blank form on the screen, all you need to do is click on your profile button in the toolbar and the artificial intelligence will look at the fields and fill them in with the information from your database. You have the option of just filling the fields in but not submitting so that you can verify the information …or just click the ‘Fill & Submit’ button and it will all be done for you.

Navigate to a site that RoboForm ‘recognises’ as you for which it holds a login and the Passcard button will highlight the name, or names if there is more than one, of the passcards so you can just select the account you want and be logged in straight away.

The password generator sits in the toolbar …just hover over it and it brings up the last generated password with a dropdown of all the recently generated passwords. Levitra Professional Click the ‘generate’ button and it will create another one instantly, click the copy button and it is on the clipboard ready to be pasted into a field for you.

The RoboForm icon in the toolbar is equipped with sunglasses when the master password is cached and is not wearing them when you are logged off.

All in all this is an absolutely brilliant bit of software.

Author Bio: Pete Bumstead is an experienced business management professional with 30 years in electronic manufacturing. Now working in Internet Marketing, specifically the green energy sector. To get information about DIY Green Energy go to the main site at DIY Solar and Wind Energy for general information about green energy visit the blog at Solar and Wind Energy

Category: Internet/Tools and Resources
Keywords: password manager,id theft,online security,password generator,form filler,phishing,phishing scam