h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have lost the password for my email account.

Like most people no doubt do, I have a few different accounts - but this is kind of the important one. It's the one tied up to memberships of organisations, etc, that I use for various bits and bobs of freelance work, etc.

The security questions are things I'd never remember. What date did I open the account? Search me - there's as much chance of me remembering that as there is of my being able to recite the names of the first Paris St Germain team to win the cup.

I *do* have one way to access it, however: the login is saved on the email app on my old phone (but it doesn't let you see, or change, the password). So if I want to be able to check email I need to carry two phones around.

So I guess I'll have to set up a new one, and inform all the relevant people of the change.

Passwords Especially for things you only use once or twice a year There has to be a better way. I've tried password managers but they're more bother than they're worth, and I really don't fancy having all my eggs in one basket.

I just use the same few passords, spread out, fairly randomly, for all the differnt things I need them for... though, recently I had a few ... not so amusing moments when I forgot passwords I use dairly, like for Gmail etc stupid brain and getting them typed in right is sometimes.... frustrating.... - esp if one goes down the route, of trying to 'mix things up', with the same password, used, on differnt sites, with, say, changed capitalisation etc I nearly fell off my pogo stick earlier, when i managed to get my WiFi password right, first time, when typing it on to an IPod, esp as its the first time I've ever used a apple style touch keyboard thinggy must have been a fluke... still can't get it to let me into Gmail.... unless I've forgotten that again

just using 'regular word phrases', but with some letters converted to numbers, is often good i find.... say, Zaphod etc; but like replacing the a with 4, and o with 0 and... etc... but, of course a longer word/phrase than that... My national insurrance number proves useful soemtimes in various differnt disguises as at least its nice n long, with letters and numbers in it and I doubt I'll ever forget it... err... I hope not!

Yeah, except if you take a few words, and change various bits of capitalisation, changing letters to numbers etc, it's not long before it becomes a hell of a lot of permutations, mathematically speaking.

And I'm afraid of trying *too* many times in case it locks the account down completely, which things sometimes do.

I'm useless with passwords. I really ought to write them down somewhere safe, because while that is to some extent a security risk, the chance of me not remembering them is a much more likely risk than anyone nefarious getting their hands on it!

I used to have all my passwords written down, o my desk. but as they were in Braille, I figured they were fairly secure - hmm, maybe writing them down in code... err... hang on! oops, I see a fatal flaw there, eventually!

I've recently hit upon an idea for some passwords, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who's thought of this.

Pick a song and use the initial letters from a line in the song as the password. If it has a number in it, so much the better. If it's an account you use every day you'll soon be able to use the password without even thinking about it; if you need to keep a reminder you can write it in a file and use a roundabout way to connect it with the account. Because you're using initial letters, and maybe numbers too, the password is essentially gibberish and looks random, but is easy to remember - all you have to do is sing the line (or choose a line from a poem and recite it). For instance: oiwo24hft

Not a particularly hard one to fathom, that, but it illustrates the point

oh! that's way too complicated! the chance of me... remembering which song I'd picked! and... then not mangling the words en route! ... but... heck if it'll work for you

I just never tick the "remember password" box, so I have to type it in every time. Just to keep my memory ticking over.

" just use the same few passords, spread out, fairly randomly" [2Legs]

I do that, too. It opens me up to malware issues, though. I've been lucky so far....