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General discussion

How do I create a strong password? (For a friend.)

May 9, 2008 8:24PM PDT

Discussion is locked

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You'll need to know its usage
May 9, 2008 9:00PM PDT

required character structure and limits. Try this link

http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/

or give it to your friend. Once the password has been generated, I'd recommend doing a copy and paste to wordpad/notepad and storing the file on a secured flash drive just in case of an amnesia attack. Happy

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Are You Asking a Question? Or Giving An Answer?
May 12, 2008 1:01AM PDT

You asked the question, then answered your own question by posting a link.. It's not clear what you're doing.. It's also not clear what type of password you're wanting.. Is it a login password, an email password, a LAN password for a router, etc.?

As to "How", there are a number of ways.. Most importantly, create one that is at least eight characters long and make it complex and with a variety of alphanumeric and punctuation characters.. For network security passwords, I prefer much longer passwords, generally 13 characters or more.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Did you see that part.......(For a friend.) ?
May 14, 2008 12:04AM PDT

I'm asking for someone and giving my two cents worth.

Besides, it's a good newbie question and might help someone else in it's being answered here publicly.

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Well, If Asking for A Friend..& You Already Knew The Answer
May 14, 2008 11:45AM PDT

..then why didn't you just tell your friend the answer??

Or...if the friend didn't like your input, then let the friend ask the question?

Oh well, to each his own.

Grif

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Very Strong Indeed
Jun 1, 2008 9:18AM PDT

It must contain at least three out of four of the following types of characters:

? English upper case characters (A through Z)
? English lower case characters (a through z)
? Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
? Non-alphabetic characters (for example, !, @, #, $, %, ^, &ampWink

Here are some examples:
? P@$$word
? paSSw0rd
? Password!
As you can see, it should not be too difficult to come up with an effective password.

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But Please Don't Use The Examples Given...
Jun 1, 2008 10:31AM PDT

All such options using the actual work "password" are generally the first options used in password cracking programs.. Good advice, just don't use the work "password" as your choice.. There are lots of other words, numbers, and characters available.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Some guide lines from the Wikipedia web page sourced above
Jun 1, 2008 10:59AM PDT

Common guidelines for choosing good passwords are:[13][14][15][16]

Include numbers, symbols, upper and lowercase letters in passwords
Password length should be around 12 to 14 characters
Avoid passwords based on repetition, dictionary words, letter or number sequences, usernames, or biographical information like names or dates.

[edit] Examples of weak passwords
See also: Password cracking
As with any password, even in the weak category, some are weaker than others. For example, the difference in weakness between a dictionary word and a word with obfuscation (where certain letters in the password are substituted for numbers) may require a password cracking device to work a few seconds longer. The examples below illustrate various ways that weak passwords are constructed, all of which are based on very simple patterns which result in extremely low randomness: [9]

Default passwords: password, default, admin, etc
Dictionary words: chameleon, Red Sox, sandbags, etc
Wordlist with numbers: password1, deer2000, john1234, etc
Wordlist with simple obfuscation: p@assw0rd, l33th4x0r, g0ldf1sh, etc
Wordlist doubled: crabcrab, stopstop, treetree, etc
Sequences: qwerty, 12345678, euidhtns, etc
Identifiers: jsmith123, 1/1/1970, 555-1234, etc
There are many other ways a password can be weak;[17] the core principle is that a password should include real randomness and not be trivially derived from a "clever" pattern nor should passwords be mixed with information that identifies the user: that is the purpose of the user name!


[edit] Examples that follow guidelines
The passwords below are examples that follow guidelines for a strong password. Since these passwords have been publicly published, they should never be used verbatim.

4pRte!ai@3 ? mixes uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and punctuation
Tp4tci2s4U2g! ? built from a phrase that a user can memorize: "The password for (4) this computer is too (2) strong for you to (4U2) guess!" ? mixes types of character as well
BBslwys90! ? loosely based on a phrase that a user can memorize: "Big Brother is always right (right angle = 90

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something simple
Jun 1, 2008 12:01PM PDT

try something like these

Xd8192Cf

cF29!8xD

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Use an online generator
Dec 9, 2011 3:21AM PST
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JUNK!
Dec 9, 2011 3:23AM PST

Sorry but these only help my friends that run around undoing the problems this creates.

Then again, maybe we should thank you.
Bob