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Password Management

Ponzi and I are at our wit’s end. We have a lot of passwords to keep between each other, for both personal and business accounts. Initially, a single password-protected spreadsheet did the trick. However, she saw it fit to add an additional tab with her own account information to the same file – and then we were messing with two versions and (in some cases) two different authentication sets. She’d scream bloody murder whenever a password would change, and I would remind her that I only wanted to keep a single master document between us. “I don’t want to do that” was always her answer, though this response provided no alternative solution (and tech decisions are “always” my responsibility, natch). Started looking around the Web for a password management system today – found a few promising resources, mostly Web-based (for universal access between the two of us and others). I really don’t wanna fuss with desktop binaries anymore.

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18 Comments

Are you going to let us know which ones you tried and liked?

I’ve been using CrypBox from Palmgear.com for years and love it. I love it because it syncs between my Palm device and my pc. I only have to remember one password. I always have my passwords with me now no matter whether I look them up on my pc or on my Treo.

Give RoboForm a look if you haven’t already. Has a free trial and not overly expensive. Also it has a USB key option and a PDA version. All can be linked to keep up to date. Works with IE and firefox, maybe more.
It can fill in forms on we pages and remember any number of paswords.

Why not set up a wiki with strong auth?

You’ll be able to export the files, if need be
you can go back as many revisions as you want,
It’s webbased (unless you use a desktop version),
it displays in every browser…

I’m using one for passwords and it works just fine. It’s secured with a 16 symbol pass and in general only allow a certain set of IPs to access it.

Would love to see some reviews of the ones you found. I’m in the market myself.

I use Password Safe:
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=41019&package_id=33169&release_id=318879

Password Safe is a password database utility. Users can keep their passwords securely encrypted on their computers. A single Safe Combination unlocks them all.

I use Password Safe, yes, it’s a binary. However,

it’s easy to use
open source
does nothing to the registry
developed by security expert Bruce Schneier.

I have a master copy, and copy the entire folder to other PCs for backup and usage.

http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/

Hi Chris – here’s one to try that someone in my company created a couple years ago. People seem to like it: http://www.onepassword.com/

Just to keep it simple and inexpensive since you started out in Excel, why not continue to use it on all of your machines, but use Microsoft’s free FolderShare to keep the spreadsheets in synch? It’s a little low tech, but would do the trick. I’m personally a big fan of FlexWallet developed by TwoPeaks and now from WebIS as it has both a Windows Mobile and corresponding Windows XP client for synchronization.

In the vein of onepassword is the master password firefox extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/469/

The TRUE beauty of the system is that you don’t need to actually store your passwords ANYWHERE. Not at home. Not on a website. Nothing. Their website will dynamically regenerate any password you need no matter where you are. And when you’re all cozy at home the firefox extension just expedites the creation/retrieval process that much more.

I’d also reccomend Password Safe. Its easy to use on any platform and very portable, and you can store the database file where both of you can have access easily to it. Though it would be nice to see the ones you found and like. (Personally I like to keep my copy on a USB Thmb Drive so I can take it with me anywhere.)

My choice is Roboform. I’ve been using the paid version for a couple years. It encrypts your password, memorizes your passwords and logs you in automatically, fills in long registration forms in one click, portable froma USB key, PDA friendly, defeats keyloggers, fights phishing.
http://www.roboform.com
.

Hi Chris. I’ll second the recommendation for KeePass – I’ve been using it for over an year now and I don’t know how I did without it. It’s really great software and the best part is the price – It’s free. I downloaded several commercial software packages before settling on KeePass. It had the best feature-set with the simplest interface.

KeePass – http://keepass.sourceforge.net/

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Keepass is a great product, as it’s a single file (not including the DB) that you can easily transport and run from anywhere (e.g. – thumbdrive, etc.). Passwordsafe.com seems like a great idea (e.g. – use it from any workstation), but the iffy interface causes me to question the professionalism. A web-based password-protected spreadsheet still seems like a good idea…

Can’t believe you never posted my comment. :(

I was trying to find reviews about Passwordsafe.com but there is not much information. How do you trust a site that was created by a third party that uses passwordsafe? Testimonials have only names so could be fake. Surprisingly no ads on the site.

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