If you read our password management guide you will know the importance of having diverse passwords. Sure, using one password for all of your online services is simple…until someone compromises one of your accounts. If all of your passwords are identical your online life is a house of cards.
KeePass Password Safe is a completely offline approach to password management, though you can combine it with cloud services like Dropbox if you want.
Before you can use KeePass you need to create a database. You’ll be prompted to do so the first time you run the program, and the main thing you need to do is specify a password.
Take this password seriously – it’s going to be the one thing protecting your various passwords from anyone who gains physical access to your computer. It’s the key that will encrypt your database, so the longer – and the harder to crack – the better.
Once you’ve set up your account you’ll see the main interface of KeePass – essentially, a list of user accounts.
Creating a new entry is simple – just click the new entry button in the toolbar (I, after years of using this, frequently hit the button that creates a new database, but whatever). When you do, you can enter everything you need to know in order to access a particular account:
Give the account whatever “title” you want – that’s there for your purposes. You’ll obviously want to include the Username and password, but including the URL can also be helpful – especially if you plan to use browser plugins. More on that later.
Your password will be rated for security, and if you’re having trouble thinking up a secure password there’s a generator. Relying on such services is sometimes not recommended – no such software is perfectly random, meaning hackers could potentially exploit a pattern – but the optional entropy option can help.
If you currently use one password for every online account…stop. While you’re setting up KeePass, it is a good time to lock things down, and the password generator can help you make secure passwords. Adding your accounts, one at a time, while changing your passwords, can take a while – but real security takes work.
KeePass doesn’t just store your passwords – it also makes it easy for you to retrieve them. Right-click any entry and you’ll see the option to copy your username, password or URL immediately:
Learn the keyboard shortcuts indicated here for quick access – you’ll like it.
It’s also worth noting that there’s a search function. If you only use KeePass to store a few passwords this isn’t a big deal, but believe me, when your collection grows to 200 or 1,000 you’ll be thankful this feature is here.
Do you like the idea of offline, encrypted password management, but also want browser integration? KeePass has you covered. A large collection of plugins allows you to automatically fill in forms on Firefox, Chrome and even Internet Explorer – and do a lot more.
Check out the KeePass plugins here. There’s a lot to explore here, and it goes well beyond browser integration. Be sure to explore if you want additional functionality.
Ready to check out KeePass Password Safe for Windows? Head to the download page at KeePass.info. You’ll find both an installer (EXE) and a portable version (ZIP). You can also download a portable version at PortableApps.com, if you want.
Are you not a Windows user? Then you should check out KeePassX, which works on Linux and OS X. There are some incompatibilities, so be sure to check out our KeePassX review to work all of that out.
There are other versions of KeePass, including KeePass Android. Check out the download page at KeePass.info for a complete list.
Do you love the idea, but wish you could sync your database to other devices? You can easily use Dropbox to sync your database, and because it’s encrypted you’re protected from vulnerability. Any syncing service will do, too – you’re not limited to Dropbox.
Do you know of any other good KeePass Password Safe tips? Share them below, so everyone can benefit. I’m looking forward to reading your ideas.
The post KeePass Password Safe – The Ultimate Encrypted Password System [Windows, Portable] appeared first on MakeUseOf.
With these good feed reading tools, why should we look at specialized RSS extensions (for Chrome)? Maybe, just for the one-click accessibility they bring. Browser extensions like the one we feature on our Best Chrome Extensions page fulfill all our basic browsing needs and then some more. Reading the feeds we subscribe to is a pretty basic day-to-day activity, and you can bet there are enough Chrome extensions for that. Like these six.
The Chrome extension developed by Google auto-detects RSS feeds on a web page. The extension makes up for Chrome’s lack of RSS support. It displays an RSS icon in the Omnibox which you can click to subscribe to the feed. You have the option of two feed readers – Bloglines and My Yahoo, with the third option of adding any online feed reader of your choice to the list. For any other feed reader apart from the two predefined in the dropdown, you will need to copy the URL from the respective feed reader’s website. For Feedly users, the URL would be – http://www.feedly.com/home#subscription/feed/%s
Let’s admit it; there are some things that Firefox does better than Chrome. Handling feed subscriptions is one of them. With Live Bookmarks, you can easily subscribe to and be up to date with your favorite websites. Chrome doesn’t have native RSS handling capabilities, so we look towards the Web Store for replacements. The Foxish live RSS extension replicates Firefox’s functionality by auto-detecting and syncing RSS feeds with bookmark folders at configured intervals. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty here as Justin showed us how to add Firefox-Style RSS feeds with Foxish. The extension sets up folders for individual website under Chrome’s bookmarks, and populates them with the maximum feed items you specify in the Options.
On the face of it, Slick RSS is a simple in-browser feed reader sans any frills. But go under the hood and it gives you quite a few customization options without betraying its simplicity. You can import and export OPML files. Slick RSS has in place some feed display options like the choice between summaries or full-content; viewing embedded videos; and loading links in the background. You can set the maximum items you want to display per feed and set the options which allow you to mark what’s read or unread. I found the refresh speed to be slightly slow, but that could be my connection too.
RSS Feed Reader is a simple and elegant solution for reading RSS and Atom feeds in the browser. It is designed to give you an overview of your RSS account and track your read and unread counts. It syncs with Google Reader but that’s not going to matter. You can directly add your RSS/Atom feeds through the interface and also import your OPML file. Feed Reader helps you to easily subscribe to feeds from any site by clicking on the browser icon. A range of feed customization options are available – choose how many posts to display or change the title of the feeds. You can rearrange your feeds into distinct folders by dragging and dropping them right from within the browser.
If you are into SEO or are a web developer, then RSS Social Analyzer is a Chrome extension that’s just the right fit for you. It is a smart analytical tool that gives you the social sharing metrics of any website with a RSS feed to its name. After installing the extension, it will auto-detect the RSS feed. With a click, it redirects you to a web tool that’s essentially a social analyzer using Linkscape’s API. Social shares are broken down by networks as you can see in the screenshots.
As the name suggests, Revolver RSS takes a single RSS feed of any website and automatically rotates the pages that fall under the particular feed. It is slightly limiting because it works with a single RSS feed. On the other hand it can be useful if you want to set up an unattended display of “revolving” web pages for a single website.
The usual suspects like Feedly missing? Well, they have been comprehensively covered before and I am betting as a RSS junkie, you probably are already on it. If you are starting to miss Google Reader, you can use the Feedly Reader extension to turn Feedly into a Google Reader clone. With the help of these extensions and so many other RSS and Atom tools, it is time to bid adieu to Google Reader with a comforting thought. As we have seen, these browser extensions not only let us read our RSS and Atom feeds but also interact with them in other ways.
Is there any super extension that’s missing from this list? I would also be interested to know about your current choice for a feed reader. Drop in and comment.
The post Local Reader – 6 Excellent RSS Extensions For Chrome appeared first on MakeUseOf.
You can use Google Chrome as a free voice recognition software to write longer emails and documents without even installing anything on your Windows or Mac computer.
This new service from BitTorrent harnesses the power of the distributed file-sharing network to keep your own private files in sync. It’s not like torrenting your files, though: BitTorrent Sync works with secret keys that let you selectively choose what to share with whom, and even supports expiring, temporary keys. Let’s walk through installing the service and sharing a folder.
Installation couldn’t be simpler. It’s not even a next-next-next affair, really, as it only has two steps. Two things are worth noting: BitTorrent Sync is utterly clean of any ads or any other dubious content (and it does not come with a BitTorrent client), and the only sort of special treatment it asks for is making a hole in the Windows firewall:
Once installed, run BitTorrent sync to begin the configuration process:
We’ll get to secrets in a moment. For now, pick Standard Setup (the default), and click Next. BitTorrent Sync will then ask you for a folder to sync:
It’s worth noting that you can use BitTorrent Sync to synchronize any folder, not just its own special folder.
Once you pick a folder, BitTorrent Sync will produce a secret for it:
This is a long string of characters which you can then use to connect to this folder from any other device. This is a key difference between BitTorrent Sync and other file-sync solutions: There are no user accounts, and you won’t be asked to create a password for yourself at any point in the process. Rather, each folder has one or more secrets, and that’s what you use to connect to it.
Once you pick your first folder to sync and get a password, BitTorrent Sync will show a quick three-step tour:
The first step of the tour shows the control panel, while the next explains you can sync an unlimited number of folders, and files of any size. Finally, BitTorrent Sync shows how you can quickly copy the secret for any shared folder, to share it with family or friends:
Once you finish the tour, you’ll find yourself in the BitTorrent Sync interface proper.
One of BitTorrent Sync’s cool features is that you can add new folders from anywhere on your computer. The Shared Folders tab has an Add button which you can click for this dialog:
Once you add a folder that already contains files, BitTorrent Sync will take a few moments to index its contents. You will already be able to copy its secret and share it with other BitTorrent Sync users. Once I entered the secret for this folder on another computer running BitTorrent Sync, the other computer’s name showed up in the BitTorrent Sync window, and files started going through instantly (they were on the same LAN, but this should work over the Internet as well, assuming you’ve let the installer configure your Windows firewall).
One thing really bears another mention here: When BitTorrent Sync gives you a secret, it means it. It is a secret. Anyone who possesses this magic string of letters will be able to gain access to the folder you’ve shared, no questions asked. Yes, you will see an unexpected device name in the Devices tab, but that will be too late: By then, the hostile party may already be in possession of your files.
What if you want to allow access to a folder, but not risk anyone deleting or modifying its contents? And what if you only want to share a folder for a limited time? BitTorrent Sync has you covered: Double-click the folder, switch to the Advanced tab, and you’ll get the following:
Here you can see the folder’s existing secret, its read-only secret (for allowing permanent read-only access), and generate one-time secrets. A one-time secret can only be used once, and expires after 24 hours. That’s pretty awesome.
BitTorrent Sync gets a lot of the basics right. Setup is a snap; you can share any folder; you don’t have to create user accounts; and the underlying file-transfer technology is, shall we say, extensively field-tested and proven. Whether or not it catches on as a mainstream means of synchronizing files — only time will tell. But this initial test shows that there’s a lot going for it.
Will you be trying BitTorrent Sync yourself? Let me know how it went in the comments!
The post From Pirate Darling To Dropbox Alternative: BitTorrent Sync Lets You Keep Your Files Synchronized Across Machines appeared first on MakeUseOf.
