Fill out the form to get your free
HowDo-i newsletter packed with useful tips.
Review: KeyPass -
Free Password Manager *****
Have you ever forgotten a password, or a user name for that
matter?
Do you have a system for your passwords but forgot the
system?
Do you avoid registering for things because you can't cope
with yet another password?
Would you like to keep all your important details safe and
remember just one single password?
Would you like to find a free tool that will solve all your
problems?
I had the same problems and more for years, I
was getting so frustrated trying to remember all the important
security stuff that I needed to that I got to the point where something
had to be done. It isn't just Internet passwords
either, what about bank card PIN numbers, credit cards PIN's, passwords
for the telephone answering machine. The list goes on and on
and it never stops getting bigger and bigger.
I had to find a solution so I went searching. I was looking for a tool
that was easy to use, secure and keeps all your details in a single
file so
that I could take it with me wherever I went. After a little searching
and trying out a
few password managers I came across KeePass and I've been using
it ever since. You can do the same and the best thing is, it's
completely
free.
Keepass is great but if you want something that does a lot more
for you then try out
The Cyber Organizer
for saving passwords, your address book, keeping your private diary,
recipies, bill payments and a whole lot more.
At the time of writing the latest version of KeyPass is 0.97b and it
can
be downloaded from here. It is a
little
difficult to locate the online documentation but you will find a
features page here and a
tutorial here.
So how will this tool solve your password problems? Well, what if you
only had to remember one password, would that do it for you? it has for
me and KeyPass allows you to do just that. You enter all your passwords
into a KeyPass database then remember one password to unlock the
database.
If you object to remembering even one password then KeyPass allows you
to create a 'Key-Disk' to unlock the database with. The Key-Disk can be
generated on any removable media including floppies, CD's, USB flash
memory etc. and it works like a conventional key. You take the Key-Disk
with you and pop it into the machine that you want to view your
database on.
You can keep all of your important information including user names,
passwords, urls and other account information in one single, encrypted
database file. That one file can be moved around from machine to
machine or even uploaded to a server on the Internet so that you can
access it from anywhere. Choose a very good password (one that is
unlikely to be guessed) for your KeyPass database master password. You
can afford to make this password better that the ones you usually use
because now you only have to remember one instead of many. At the time
of writing I have 49 passwords stored in my database and I am adding to
them all the time. I haven't even bothered to enter the passwords that
I haven't used since I started using KeyPass. Remember that you can
change the master password for your database at any time.
Do you tend to choose the same password for everything because that's
the only way you can realistically remember them? The problem with that
strategy is that if someone guesses your password they then have the
key to unlock all of your accounts. Using KeyPass you can choose a
different password for every account or web site etc. and you can make
them all as long and difficult to remember as you like because you will
always have the password manager on hand to tell you what they are.
Simply copy them out of KeyPass and paste them into the login form.
Do you have a problem thinking up passwords? well KeyPass can help
there too with a very neat password generator. The generator first
allows you to choose what types of characters to include, then you
enter a load of random characters to use as a seed for the password
that it generates. As an alternative to the text seed you can move the
mouse randomly around a chaos field (area of random dots) while KeyPass
monitors the mouse movements to use as the seed.
You can also save any information you like along with the user name and
password for an account. You can enter notes and even attach a file.
You can save all the additional account information such as extra urls
and any hints that you might need to remember and you might want to
attach the sign-up email file for instance. You can only attach one
file to each record which is a little bit limiting but it isn't a big
problem.
KeyPass does not lock you in to using it forever as it allows the
entire database to be printed or exported to a file in TXT (simple text
file), HTML (Web page), XML (eXtended Markup Language or CSV (Comma
Separated Variable) formats. This is more than enough to ensure that
you are able to import your password list into another manager utility
at some later point. You might even want to print out your password
list and put it in a safe place just to be on the safe side. A hard
copy printout can help your peace of mind.
As your database grows you will find that you will start to find that
it is difficult to remember even the name of the account let alone the
group that you stored it under. KeyPass's "Find in Database" search
feature solves this problem for you and works very well.
Well that's it, KeyPass is the Password Manager that I use and I love it
but if you need something that does more for you then check out
The Cyber Organizer
You should assume that there is an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection to the providers of goods and services linked to on this page and that we may be compensated when you purchase from a provider.
Store All Your Important Items in One Safe Place
No more lost scraps of paper, scribbles
in notebooks, different computer programs to learn... One easy
way to do it all! Protect and organize all your important
information using military type security standards.
