[Ppillman]

Using a song, as mentioned above, or choosing a sentence and using the first letters from that sentence, always works well. Dates and times are convenient ways to add special characters and numbers, but try to change the format of either one in some way. (eg. using the Jingle Bells idea used above, instead of "jbjbjatw1228" try "jbjbjatw1k228")

Another tip, especially for websites, is to take some letter(s) from the web-site address, and incorprate it/them into your password. This allows you to have a unique password for every site you visit, and makes it something that you can remember, without making it insecure.

(eg. "jbjbjatw1228", for a password try the third and fifth letter in the address, so for www.geekstogo.com, you would use the "e" and the "s". Now make the password jbjbjatw1e22s8.)

To make it more secure, don't use the "e" and "s", try using the letter/character two keys, on your keyboard, to the right of those key letters you use, which would make it "jbjbjaw1t22f8". ("t" is two keys to the right of "e" and "f" is two keys to the right of "s" on a common QWERTY keyboard)

Whatever you do, don't identically copy any "suggested passwords" you see. These tips are only to get you thinking. Make up your OWN password!

Finally don't forget to make your password recovery questions safe as well. Sites which email you a link to recover your password are best, but not all sites are so secure. (Case-in-point: the hacker who gained access to Sarah Palin's email account, did it by answering a few questions he could easily discover or guess)

[sul2005tan]

useful tutorial thank you very much

[OGdexter]

I'm no geek but I look around my desk, house whatever and pick letters and numbers by whim. pu from the word puddle in this printout,59 from this upc label, ast from the text on this poster,76 by closing my eyes and putting my hand on the keyboard and picking out the numbers, and rs the last two letters of the sentence before this. equals pu59ast76rs.
I made a list of all the places I need passwords and made a template with three columns, place,username,password. I alphabetized the list and entered the usernames and print. I handwrite in the passwords. None of my passwords have ever been entered into a database/document on my computer, ever.

[jaub22050]

JuanE, on May 19 2008, 12:29 AM, said:

Oh my god! I use the same password for everything and it's really not that hard. If someone finds out about it, I'm screwed. Guess I'll have to start changing my passwords, make them more secure. Thanks for posting this little guide.

here's a pretty good password managment program that might be able to help you out, its got alot of features and uses includes a password generator as well. i also use it for a simple information database.

http://keepass.info

[Wrinkly Pete]

I cannot recall where I originally got this from but it may be helpful.....

Creating strong passwords:

To help keep your computer more secure, you should use a strong password. While this is a good practice in general for all of your computer accounts, it is especially important for your network logon and for the Administrator account on your computer.

For a password to be strong, it should:
•Be at least seven characters long. Because of the way passwords are encrypted, the most secure passwords are seven or 14 characters long.
•Contain characters from each of the following three groups:
Group Examples
Letters (uppercase and lowercase) A, B, C... (and a, b, c...)
Numerals 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Symbols (all characters not defined as letters or numerals) ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + - = { } | [ ] \ : " ; ' < > ? , . /
•Have at least one symbol character in the second through sixth positions.
•Be significantly different from prior passwords.
•Not contain your name or user name.
•Not be a common word or name.

Passwords can be the weakest link in a computer security scheme. Strong, hard-to-guess passwords are important because the tools and computers that people use to guess passwords continue to improve. Network passwords that once took weeks to guess can now be guessed in hours.
Password-guessing software uses one of three approaches: intelligent guessing, dictionary attacks, and automation that tries every possible combination of characters. Given enough time, the automated method can guess any password. However, it can still take months to guess a strong password.
Windows passwords can be up to 127 characters long. However, if you are using Windows XP on a network that also has computers using Windows 95 or Windows 98, consider using passwords not longer than 14 characters. Windows 95 and Windows 98 support passwords of up to 14 characters. If your password is longer, you may not be able to log on to your network from those computers.


Hope it helps.

[Ehsanit]

Quote

•Be at least seven characters long. Because of the way passwords are encrypted, the most secure passwords are seven or 14 characters long

That's only relevant for passwords to some older versions of Windows. It is irrelevant to passwords to your E-mail, trueCrypt partition, newer Windows(I think), or anywhere else you have a password. Generally length helps, and seven character passwords are no longer really up to scratch.

[Odal]

I like to just come up with a sentence that I can easily remember. Spaces, period and everything. Don't know the technical aspects behind it whether it encrypts the spaces or whatnot but it seems to work for me

[ZaRMan]

What about your computer model, with capital's or something? or the longest word you know, which for me is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis (a lung disease)

Nah, just kiddding! Serious about computer model though

[protiti]

Moreover for the best security you should use at least one number, one lower case and one upper case and one special symbol. I am using 15 digit password on all of my work and they include the character like these.