Internet for beginners: Internet for Beginners: Password Manager

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Published December 08, 2008 by:Kel Stumic View Profile | Follow | Add to Favorites More:Password Manager Pocketpc Personal Information Manager File ManagerIf you are a beginner at using the Internet, now is a great time to stop a minute and think about password managers. The days when people used a small number of programs with few passwords on their own computers are gone.

Nowadays, if you are going to use the Internet, even just a little, you will find that everywhere you go people are asking you to sign up with a username and a password: email accounts, online banking, forums, shopping accounts, social networking accounts, magazine and newspaper subscriptions and all the other online services you might subscribe to.

Before too long, you are drowning in URLs, usernames, and passwords. Logging into all those accounts is pure torture.

If you try to use the same username and password for every account so you can remember them, thus use your brain as a password manager, you run a serious security risk. There are some really twisted people on the Internet. You don't want to give them the keys to your entire Internet life if they breach one account.

You will normally use your browser's bookmarking tool for remembering URLs (site addresses). It is called different things on different browsers, usually Favorites or Bookmarks or something like that. Don't even think of typing all those URLs all day long unless you are a masochist. But even using Favorites, it still gets irritating to enter your username and password over and over as you visit your accounts.

If you use different usernames and passwords for each account, how can you possibly memorize all of them, especially after you get 50 or 100 different accounts? The fact is you can't. You need a password manager.

The simplest password manager of all is a piece of paper. Who hasn't had scrap pieces of paper lying around all over and lost a password or username when one disappeared? You really need something better than that if you want to use the web properly.

You can use a spreadsheet as a password manager. But it is awkward. You have to open it every time you go on the Internet. Copying and pasting are easier than typing, but even this gets tiring over time. Also, if a hacker ever gets onto your hard disk, it would be piece of cake to copy this file.

Page:12 3 Next Page »Print Flag ClosejQuery('#flag_link').bind('click.ajaxload', function(){jQuery('#flag_response').load('/action_flag.shtml?flag_login=1&view_flag_menu=1&redir=%2Farticle%2F1258575%2Finternet_for_beginners_password_manager.html');});Published by Kel StumicI am a writer and enthusiast of Internet marketing. I love finding fantastic bargains on products and services. View profile