# I'm a putz. I forgot my email password.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 22, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219 "2004-12-22T21:10:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2004, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/1 "2004-12-22T21:10:54Z")
AND I forgot the answer to the ‘security question’.
Yes, I _am_ embarrassed. :o
This is just to say I have another email address in my profile. [I have informed TubaDiva]
I’m sorry.
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/2 "2004-12-22T21:19:39Z")
Damn, there are soooooo many places we need passwords for these days. We can either be insecure and use the same one everywhere, or risk forgetting, and use different ones everywhere.
I have to remember about 15 completely different passwords at work.
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### Author:  [@Sevo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevo)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/3 "2004-12-22T21:41:09Z")
I used to be a part time administrator for a small web-based companies servers. It got insane. I kept a little pocket book with me with all of the esoteric passwords to the root users, encryption keys, credit card databases, blah blah blah. Only problem there is that if that book ever fell into enemy hands…well, I’d be hosed, anyway.
“Uh…yeah, listen, about changing the database configuration…”
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/4 "2004-12-22T21:52:30Z")
Maybe you can contact your mail host, and they can e-mail it to you?
d&r
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/5 "2004-12-23T00:20:11Z")
> [@Lobsang](#):
>
> I have to remember about 15 completely different passwords at work.
Only 15? Lucky you.
I’ve got close to 60, hence the name.
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/6 "2004-12-23T00:40:50Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> I’ve got close to 60, hence the name.
Do yours change without your prior knowledge?
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### Author:  [@Etherman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Etherman)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/7 "2004-12-23T01:14:03Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> Only 15? Lucky you.
>
> I’ve got close to 60, hence the name.
I know the feeling. I use a program called passwordsafe to keep track of them all. It is standalone, so it can be run on any windows box without an install, and uses blowfish to encrypt the passwords. I keep it on a thumb drive and have it with me always. The database is small enough I also periodically email it to my gmail account as a backup.
Now if I forget _that_ password, I am so screwed.
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### Author:  [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/8 "2004-12-23T01:24:29Z")
I use Norton Password Manager on my home PC. Anytime an application prompts me for a password, Norton fills it in for me. It’s great. But I still keep a list of passwords just in case. At work, I restrict myself to a rotating sequence of passwords (OK, there’s only two in the sequence!). So if I forget, I can guess the right one pretty quickly.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/9 "2004-12-23T18:48:02Z")
> [@Lobsang](#):
>
> Do yours change without your prior knowledge?
Change? No. Expire? Frequently. Most of mine have 60-day lifespans. One or two have 90-day lives. Some are only 30 days. The high-level stuff has 15-day lifespans, and the really high-level-breach-this-and-the-bank’s-out-of-business stuff has a two minute life.
At least the three voicemail systems I use at work have non-expiring passwords.
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### Author:  [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/10 "2004-12-23T22:14:34Z")
I somehow manage to remember all my email passwords. It’s all the other ones that I forget. I always end up signing back up for things like BellSouth online, Duke Power and my mortgage company. At one point, I had 5 different accounts with BellSouth, all with different log-in names.
And the one time I got the bright idea to write all of my passwords down, I lost the paper they were written on. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2004, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/11 "2004-12-24T02:23:33Z")
> [@gum](#):
>
> AND I forgot the answer to the ‘security question’.
> Yes, I _am_ embarrassed. :o
> This is just to say I have another email address in my profile. [I have informed TubaDiva]
> I’m sorry.
Save yourself a lotagrief. A few months into the new year the office supply stores will be selling the coat pocket size Daily Planners cheap!
Alphabetical dividers and all. Get a pack of extra sheets too.
Makes a handy-dandy log book for user names and passwords for ready accessability.
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### Author:  [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/12 "2004-12-24T07:53:51Z")
Thanks for the tips, all.
**Johnny L.A.** , My host aksed me to answer the ‘security question’. Which I forgot as well. I told you, I’m a :wally
**PinGear** , Sounds like a good plan. Thanks. 🙂
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/13 "2004-12-24T17:04:04Z")
> [@PinGear](#):
>
> pocket size Daily Planners … Makes a handy-dandy log book for user names and passwords for ready accessability.
Just be sure to write small.
I wish I could say I was kidding, but I actually came across the advice “If you have to write down your IDs and passwords, write small” in a CISSP “practice questions” book. :rolleyes:
The rationale for this was small writing is harder for someone to “shoulder surf” or otherwise get a look at it.
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### Author:  [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-putz-i-forgot-my-email-password/281219/14 "2004-12-24T19:55:33Z")
That, or learn a different alphabet to write passwords in, which works great for me, as long as I don’t forget where those 1.5 inch post its went…