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Question

password managers

Sep 13, 2018 8:17AM PDT

get various bits of info encouraging use of a " password manager" and would like to know if there is a difference between various products, making one better than another , do they provide another level of security … would they be deemed necessary , by the you out there who know a lot more than me ? thanx

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Stick to the "names" in this category.
Sep 13, 2018 10:10AM PDT
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which are ?!?
Sep 15, 2018 8:13AM PDT

what are the "Names"...top 5 perhaps

thanx

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Any search will pull these up
Sep 15, 2018 8:53AM PDT

The ones I see mentioned all the time are LastPass, KeePass, 1Password, Roboform

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Thanks for this.
Sep 15, 2018 9:14AM PDT

Yup, those are the names.

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Answer
I use Splash ID
Sep 14, 2018 10:28PM PDT

Personally, I use Splash ID. I've been using it since the Palm Pilot days, back in the late '90s. It does cost a few bucks, but I have found it easily worth the price for all the years of use I've gotten out of it. They changed their business model to make the cloud sync a yearly subscription. It's really convenient to have all of the info on both my phone and my computers. Sometimes they run a special where they offer a lifetime subscription for a single price. Worth asking if they're currently offering that.

As R. Proffitt suggests, the name brand password managers are popular for a reason. A couple of them are free. Try them out and see which feels the most comfortable for you.

I briefly tried to switch to KeePass a couple of years ago. If all I were saving were website passwords it probably would have been Good Enough. I tried using an add-on that provides extra fields for other kinds of data, like account numbers, phone numbers stored with credit card numbers, etc. But, I found it very awkward to use. Splash ID has templates for that sort of thing. Sure, it's just text fields, but it makes for easy and convenient organization.

One suggestion with any password manager. When you're creating a new account, make yourself stop and create the new record in your password manager. In fact, what I have trained myself to do is Copy&Paste from the password manager into the website or app. That way, I can be certain that the password in my manager is precisely the same that goes into the account.

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Answer
Some Options
Sep 16, 2018 10:15AM PDT

First, internet browsers such as Chrome and others have improved their security. They offer to save passwords for you, and that will synchronize whenever you use that browser on other computers, phones, tablets, etc. The convenience of this is obvious; you don't need to install any 3rd-party apps or browser "extensions" (i.e., add-ons). Yet another convenient option is to have your anti-virus program handle password duties. Again, nothing extra to install. One feature you want to be sure is included in your chosen method is the ability to generate a new, random password for any website you want. Also, you may want to change or update passwords from time to time and here again your password manager needs to be able to change/generate a new password for that site. LastPass is one popular add-on password manager. It has a free security challenge feature that checks all your saved passwords for duplicates, and offers to update/change so that every password is different. I never trusted Internet Explorer to save and protect my passwords, but these days Chrome and Firefox, or Avast anti-virus can all do a good job handling these tasks.

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Avast Passwords
Sep 27, 2018 9:28AM PDT

Yes, we have Avast Passwords available with our Free antivirus (it's free to use) Happy And it works in Chrome and Firefox as well as Avast Secure Browser.

We take security and encryption seriously, as well -- more details on this here.

Thanks for the mention!