Dennis Papendick's Password Manager

Dennis Papendick shared this note concerning his experience with one of the Password Managers mentioned in a recent bulletin board notice:

Excellent article on password managers.  After looking at several reviews, I selected KeePass 2.19.  It works beautifully.  I go to whatever website (USAA, credit union, utility, etc), make sure the cursor is at the logon ID box, open KeePass, right-click on the name of the site I want to open, hit “Perform Auto-Type” and bingo, up comes my account on the website.  Inside KeePass I have 15 categories, with probably over 100 sites listed. When I want to enter a new website logon, KeePass generates a strong password for me.  I don’t even have to look at the password, since I don’t need to remember it.  Just make sure it is set to generate the type of password required by the website.  KeePass replaced several sheets of paper with unintelligible chicken-scratchings.  Now no more worries, just one master password to remember. 

One reminder:  The user must backup the database to a separate drive.  I use two Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex ultra-portable hard drives, one of 500BG and one of 1TB ($80 at Costco recently).  The 1TB I keep attached via a USB connection, and synchronize my C: and E: drive library folders daily.  That takes only a short time using the Sync feature of a free organizing program, PowerDesk 8.  I use the 500GB Seagate to backup Windows 7 and also copy the library folder once a week.  It lives in a drawer in my office, and is attached only when I’m actually backing up the computer.  I also backup the KeePass files and several others to a USB drive once in a while.  That’s particularly useful for travel.

KeePass apparently works with Linux and Mac OS X, as well as various flavors of Windows.