How many usernames and passwords do you have?

[coriolis]

When I think about all the accounts I have - bank, ebay, paypal, electric, cable, insurance, emusic, itunes, S2K, other forums, 401k, comcast mail, yahoo mail, work computer, home computer, and I know I'm missing some, it becomes a challenge to keep track of all the account information.

My basic password that I use whenever possible is 3 letters, 3 symbols (above the numbers), a number, a punctuation symbol, and two more numbers. It sort of spells out a sentence and its easy to remember. At work we have to keep changing our password, so I change the last two numbers only. Some of the accounts like my bank, do not accept symbols in the password. You'd think that a bank would want a secure password. But I use the same first letters, then three more letters, and two numbers. Coriolis is always my first choice for a user name, but often it's already taken. So I put numbers after it. Other accounts have different requirements, so I end up with a dizzying number of account names and passwords. I've resorted to creating little text documents that don't include the word "account" or "password" but just contain the information I need to get it right.

How do you all cope with this issue?

[RL3AO]

not as many passwords as I should have. Many forums I use have the same two or three passwords. However, my online banking password is very secure.

[angelwing]

I am guilty of using the same password for almost all of the forums I am on, as I have at the day job a total of 6 passwords to use that are all different (2 of them require 2 cap letters, 2 symbols, and the rest letters to total a 15 word password plus a security card that has it's own password to even get into my computer, my night job requires 5 passwords and my bank password is very secure. I have 8 (or 9?) separate email accounts that are needed and each one has one password that is similiar to every other one so all I need do is change one or 2 numbers.

The only problem I have is trying to remember all my email accounts, sigh. As for the passwords for the jobs, even though I shouldn't I have them written down but I have it in my own code so if someone finds it they would be clueless.

Life was so much simplier before technology.

[thetruesms]

The amount of passwords every person is accumulating really makes a password management system like lastpass or keepass necessary. That way you can create as many strong passwords as you need and only have to remember one.

[Florida1118]

I have numerous ones and they tend to not be even colse to each other, though my Storm2k UN is close to my Youtube one...but I just remember them. If I dont...whoops.

[DaylilyDawn]

I have a organizer that I write down my usernames and passwords for places I visit. Since I use Sea Monkey for my browser, I can open up the Password Manager if I am at a site I know I have been to before but have been logged out of to see what the password for the site is.

[Cryomaniac]

I have exactly 4 passwords, not counting 2 other default ones that I've never changed.

[Frank2]

Too many - bring back candlestick telephones, manual typewriters and inkwell pens (all in use when I was born)...

P.S. Incredible at the amount of change in such a short period - must be a problem with the timeline continuum (lol)...

[Cyclenall]

There are too many to count now, must be at least 15 in all areas of life. It is becoming a mild problem for some people but usually the most important ones are easy to remember since you use them the most. A good idea is a password organizer on the computer which only needs one good password you can remember. In college there were so many usernames and passwords for different things that the staff recommended that we use the same password for all educational related logins...which of course is not recommended in general.

[southerngale]

A LOT!! I reuse a few passwords where security isn't a big deal, but for all banking and financial type sites, and shopping sites, they're all unique. My little spiral notepad that I started using for passwords in the last millennium was falling apart and had zero organization. It was a nightmare when I needed a rarely used password. So last year I got this and I love it:





$8.95 free shipping and no tax

You can click on the image to see more about it. Very handy little book!