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If you visit lots of websites, you’ve probably started to accumulate a LOT of passwords for each site. For security reason, you should have SEPARATE passwords for each site. (Else, if someone learns that one password of yours, they could access any other site you visit. Not secure.) Also, these passwords should be “strong”; at least 6 characters with a variety of letters and numbers. Wow: lots of sites, lots of different passwords, all of them not easy to remember! That’s where you need a program to store your passwords — you enter one password to that program and it shows you all your other passwords.

I’ve tried many different password keepers, some free and some not. For the PC, I found that Roboform was great. It remembers your passwords, logs you in, even fills out forms for you. But it doesn’t play at all with the Mac. For the Mac, I found 1Password works great. Same functionality as Roboform (plus syncing to the iPhone). However, it doesn’t play with Windows. (Sure, you can import and export between the two, then use something like Dropbox to sync them, but it’s a hassle and isn’t real-time.) So, now I’ve got two great systems and neither one easily communicates with it other, so passwords on my PC can’t be found on my Mac.

That’s where LastPass is perfect. LastPass works with Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. So, you can use it on your PC and Mac. It stores all of your passwords, ENCODED, on their server. You log into the extension in Firefox for example, (please use a STRONG password!) and it provides the same great functionality of Roboform or 1Password, but all your passwords are SYNCED!

And, if you visit a computer without LastPass installed, just go the LastPass web site, log in, and there are all your websites with passwords. (No longer do you have to bring a sticky pad with your login information around when you travel.)

If you have lots of passwords and want a great, easy-to-use FREE password keeper that syncs (via cloud), then check out: LastPass.

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2 Comments to “LastPass: Free password syncing for PC/Mac”

1. markmcmahon says:

   March 29, 2009 at 6:02 pm

   Hopefully, you’ve created a very secure password for the password manager. On LastPass, if they do manage to get a hold of THAT password (or, if they are on your computer and have access to your password manager program), then you are in BIG trouble. So, make it *strong* and MEMORIZE it.

   The problem with using the same password on all sites is that, if someone can break into one site — say that site was compromised, like Monster.com (http://help.monster.com/besafe/jobseeker/index.asp) — you could be at risk on ALL your other sites. If you’ve created unique passwords, then the hackers who broke into Monster, can’t also get into your .Mac account because the passwords are different.

   Here’s another review from (cough) PC Magazine about LastPass that might explain it further: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343565,00.asp

   Mark

   Reply
2. T Young says:

   March 29, 2009 at 3:00 pm

   I don’t really get it — how is using the password manager different from using a single password for everything?

   Reply