OK folks, before I move to Alaska… As a result of multiple requests from my How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords article, I’ve put together the following 15 minute RoboForm tutorial that demonstrates how I use RoboForm to securely and easily manage my passwords. This is my first video tutorial ever, so please be gentle…
But before we go any further I want to share some full disclosure. I am personally a customer of Roboform. I purchased the full version as well as the add ons for Palm Pilot and Pocket PC. As of a couple of days ago, they are now paying me a small commission when people buy the software (yeah!). But this has zero bearing on the contents of this post.
If you haven’t done so already, please download and install Roboform so you can follow along with the Roboform tutorial. Here we go…
Having downloaded, installed and populated the RoboForm program, what do I do about all the saved passwords in the browser options tab? My guess is that they should be cleared, just seeking confirmation.
Sorry John, (or anyone else who can help me), how do I view the video tutorial? Do I download FLV Player & will there be an icon to click on to view it? Thank You.
AS regards roboform being secure, what about the fact that you can just open my roboform data and just see all the passwords directly – though it requires access (directly or indirectly to your computer. That folder is not secure at all on the computer, it should be
It was a very informative video on Roboform. My wife and I are debating which password manager to use. We are senior citizens and want to make the right choice. If you respond, I was wondering what your feelings are about password managers that store information in the “cloud.” Roboform Everywhere does this. THAT is what scares us and is causing our hesitation. That our passwords/info, even though encrypted, will be stored online, “somewhere.†Would you trust these or is it better to stick with Roboform Desktop, which does not? I’d appreciate your feedback, if possible……thank you.
Where’s the video?
Thank you for taking the time to put together a very educative video. Just a small query pl – I am using a win mob phone and sync it regularly with my laptop. Can one use roboform from the win mob phone as well ?
Thank you.
Ajai
(ha – my very first use of Roboform was filling in this comment form – o, how ironic :)
John, that was great – ran the video with the software and job’s a good one.
(interestingly, i have multiple browser (firefox) profiles and Roboform just reached through and updated all of them- (a good thing)
a question to you – now if i need to access these passwords from another machine? ie at workplace?
and do Roboform have a mobile (windows) version?
I’ll be subscribing to your feeds for more gems of techie wisdom – cheers.
Hi John,
Presently I am using Lastpass. How do you rate it in comparison with Roboform in terms of security and convenience?
Regards
Sunil
Dave,
RoboForm uses triple DES encryption so it is very strong. I’ve never heard of the app being compromised anywhere, after years and years of use.
Even if a hacker got the database as long as you used a very strong master pass you should be just fine.
John P.
Thank you – that was excellent. I’ve considered using Robofrom or Keepass for ages (currently on 2 sheets of paper in my home office cupboard).
A question though – what is the encryption like on Roboform provided the Master Password is strong? What measures prevent Roboform from being hacked and is it also dependant upon other security like anti-virus/firewall etc on the PC on which it is residing?
Cheers
Dave
Perth. Australia
I just watched your RoboForm demo video. How do I back up all the data I’ve entered into RoboForm, what is the file name called and where is it stored? Want to know when I get a new laptop and want to move all my data over. Thank you.
Why not using the FF plugin Lastpass.com ? It doesn’t exactly the same…
that is what the secure online cloud version is good for and you can place Roboform on a USB drive and take it with you.
Thank you for pointing this out.
I use an Ironkey USB drive that is password protected to doubly insure that a hacker will have a very hard time learning my passwords. I found your video to be well done and very useful for those I recommend Roboform to…Thank you
@icersc0t Have you tried RoboForm Online: http://online.roboform.com ? This is a free optional service which allows RoboForm users to save their data to the cloud.
I disagree with the blind faith in storing important passwords and info (encrypted) on a hard disk. Fairly recently I have a motherboard melt on me and also a complete hard disk failure.
I had to resort to going back to my trusty old notebook (paper variety!) for all the passwords lost. Obviously you don’t write down the password properly (shift letters one up and numbers one down algorithm). Stick to that and you should be OK. I advocate keeping very important information in more than one place.
As someone else stated. Using one or more computers is a challenge it looks like and what about backing up the info in roboform. How is that accomplished? If I put all that important info in there, I want to be sure I can get it back if I have a failure of some sort.
I’ve been using Password Agent for almost 3 years. The best thing is that I click on an entry inside Password agent and it will open a weblink and autofill my username and password automatically.
If someone wants to have a look:
http://www.moonsoftware.com
I’ve used the software for over 2 years now.. but seeing your video makes me more understand the program. Thank you for making this video!
Oh and, roboform is really great software. I use it everyday. It stores almost hundred passwords of mine.
extraordinary work. great info.
And part of me (having just forgotten a password tonight…) goes “yeah fine and good, but what happens when you need to login to sites/accounts when you’re on another computer without roboform there to guide you…
(scream)
nice work as a hacker myself (job) i can agree that it is much harder to hack but when hacked you have all the passwords, info, exc still nice job. ps why do you think they have made C and C++ but no C+. ty
This is not about RoboForm, but about posting screen grabs.
Most of the reason for the degradation of animated screen grabs is due to the nature of MPG (and JPG) compression. It’s due to the fact that the compression is based on DCT (discrete cosine transform) which assumes that you are taking a picture of something that occurs in nature, with short-term changes in HSV between pixels. That is, it will have curved edges and not have sharp, high-contrast edges. Most movies of people and places follow this rule.
But buildings, signs, text, and even more so, computer displays (by design!) have very sharp edges. These create compression artifacts, which show the well-known effect that looks like ripples coming away from the edge in question.
This is one of the reasons why PNG can be much better than JPG files for stills of man-made objects. This is why the Divx people continue to release new versions of their product.
Rule of thumb: for pictures of your kids, or trees, use JPG. For screen shots, use PNG (or even GIF). For movies of kids, or trees, or kids in trees, MPG will be fine. For animated screen grabs, we need to encourage YouTube and other sites to add a checkbox that says “this is a screengrab” or something. Otherwise, you will get the compression artifact every time.
Dave
Hogan,
I think you are a bit aggressive in you approach but I agree with you. I’m a roboform user for >2 years ant I use KeePass for other stuff. But I hate promoting stuff that way. If you have very basic or no computer knowledge you gone down the advertising hole! RoboForm is good but we really need to see competition from fee open source stuff.
Thanks for the video tutorial.
Hogan,
My reputation and identity on the Web are well established. Millions of people have relied on the information I provide on HTMLHelp.com and OneMansBlog.com.
I have no incentive whatsoever to advocate any product I don’t believe in. In fact I donate any and all proceeds from my personal blog to charity. (There are none to speak of anyway.)
As far as the invitation to hack your personal Web site is concerned, no thank you.
Hacking is illegal. I don’t do it. And I certainly wouldn’t do it at the invitation of a teen-ager running a “fake” server on a home computer using DynDNS on a connection coming from a local utility.
John
You are an idiot propaganda bullshit spreader! You are promoting your site and RoboForm, you claim you can crack my passwords? I welcome you moron and say GOOD LUCK!
Here you go all setup for you!
http://www.marmoramasons.com/admin
Go for it, and I will prove you are an idiot, and just to help you, it is only 9 characters, set it up easy for you. After you fail, I want you to post that you are not as smart as you state, and you are only pusghing bullshit products.
Elaine,
First of all, I used my Webcam to record the video and the audio. It is a Logitech Quickcam Ultra. For the portion where I was speaking I just used the free Logitech software to make a little video.
For the screen capture part, there are many options including:
I was experimenting with Camtasia Studio on this video and it worked OK. But the output options seem weak to me. It didn’t seem to have any output that was specifically optimized for uploading to a video sharing site like YouTube, and this caused me all manner of headaches.
I’ll likely try some others for my next project to see if I can’t make the process easier.
John
John,
I was wondering what you used to make this video. Specifically, the computer screen video.
thanks,
Elaine
Roboform is the most used piece of software on my pc. I use keepass for storing information also but i love the way roboform integrates into the browser so well.
@TheMan;
About Keepass, it’s not as compatible with browsers as Roboform is. It has an autofill function to fill in the password and usernames on a page. But it doesn’t work at all times and is slower in that than Roboform. But it’s normal because Keepass is different than Roboform, it’s created to store any passwords at any platforms and it is free!
But, you can use Keepass as your master password manager, since it can store any type of password you want and encrypt them as you wish.
Keepass also is compatible with Linux, Mac, Palm and Pocket PC’s. Which makes it better than Roboform in some ways, since Roboform only works at Windows.
@Elaine,
As long as you carry your roboform with you, all you need to know is your Roboform master password.
Maybe you don’t want to or can’t install roboform at work, then you can always use Roboform2Go which is a portable version of Roboform, and use it from your USB Memory Stick. This way, you would never have to enter your password anywhere and you don’t have to know your passwords. (Well of course, unless you have to use Linux or Mac somewhere!)
The generate button on Roboform allows you to generate passwords. It’s a useful tool. It can generate any lenght of passwords with characters from A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and any additional characters you want on the fly. Also, once generated you can click “Fill” and let it fill the password section on whatever website you’re in. (Just do not forget to click Copy and save afterwards :D)
Oh, BTW.. Do not forget to backup your Roboform data; which is stored in your “My Documents” folder by default.
John,
thanks very much for the video – it sure made things clearer for me. I really appreciate that you went to all this trouble. You truly are a very nice person! Also, you did a terrific job on your first video!
Question: If I tried to log on to my gmail account from work, which password would I need to know? The Roboform master or the gmail account password?
Also, what is the Generate button about? Can Roboform generate a random password for sites. If so, can you see them somewhere if you needed to?
I guess I’m not really understanding the program because if you have to think up a password for each site, wouldn’t you have to make sure that it is a very secure one and then have it written down somewhere if you weren’t at your home computer?
Does Roboform only work on your own personal computer but you have to remember passwords when you are somewhere else?
I hope I’m making sense and not sounding too ditzy here. If I went to visit my sister in florida and used her computer, would I be able to get into my mail if I only remembered my roboform master password?
Thanks! You’re the Man!
Elaine
p.s. I’ve sold all my worldly possessions and am moving to Alaska with you.
John,
Yes… to some degree, but I don’t use it. It’s a functin called auto-type, and you can fill in your SN and PW in one key stroke (and probably more stuff like address etc.). I don’t use it becasue it is not key logger resistant.
http://keepass.info/help/base/faq_tech.html#autotypelog
Peter,
Will KeePass recognise form fields in Web pages and autopopulate the info into them for you?
Or for that matter, does anyone know if any other free password managers will?
John
KeePass is free and easy to use
I highly recommend it for passwords, you can store the db on a usb drive, so you can physically disconnect from the computer when not using
http://keepass.info/