Sc@-tt3r-ed Thoughts

There are times when I’m working with friends/clients where I need to access their computers to assist them with a particular problem. In order to make the process simpler, I created some step by step instructions on installing the LogMeIn agent on their computer, with some friendly screenshots. The following screenshots apply to Windows XP. Windows Vista instructions will come later

Please follow these steps:

1-Go to Start/Run

2- Type http://logmein.com/logmein.msi

3- Click on “Run”. Optionally, you can click on “Save” and save it to the desktop, in case you need to re-run it later

4- Click Run…

5- Click Next

6- Select “I Agree”

8- Select “Typical” (Default)

9- Leave the computer description as the default.

10- In this area, type in the email address and password that I give you. and make sure you choose “LogMeIn Free”

11- Click “Next”

The installer will start … let the it finish. during that time, your screen may blink quickly a couple of times. this is normal. don’t panic!

12- Click on “Finish”

Once the installer is done, if you look on the bottom right hand of your screen, you will find this the gray icon with 4 blue dots in it (highlighted in red). this is an indication that LogMeIn has been installed

If you right click on that icon, the below menu will pop up. the second option is: “Disable LogMeIn” . This means LogMeIn is enabled. if LogMeIn is disabled, this option will say “Enable LogMeIn

In some cases:

a- if you don’t have a password on your computer (in which case, usually LogMeIn will ask to assign one upon installation, and you wouldn’t have to follow the steps below)
b- If you don’t want to share your password with me

You will need to create an account for me In order to do so, follow these steps:

1- On your desktop, right click on “My Computer” and choose Manage.

2- The below screen will open up: Expand Local Users and Groups, Right click on “Users”, and select “New User…”

3- Fill in the fields exactly as you see them below. The password will be one that you wouldn’t mind sharing with me.

4- In the same menu, right click on the “Groups” item, and select “Add to Group … “

5- In the screen that pops up, type in: LogMeInRemoteUser (just like below). Then click on “Check Names”. the name should resolve, and will become underlined. then click on Ok.

You should see a screen like the one below. then click Ok.

Now you should be ready for me to connect to your computer and help you with any issues that you may have.

In my line of work, I have many passwords that I need to remember, and a lot of times I find myself juggling the passwords, typing and retyping to guess the correct password that I chose for the particular service/websites/ssh session, etc ….

So, as I thought about it, I figured that I should create some sort of algorithm that i could remember that would help in creating a secure password. As I looked up online, I found a couple of people that have created a similar system, but in this article I will share mine, as I think that it has nice variable to it that will eliminate the guess work from passwords. So, let’s get started.

1- Choose any sentence that you find appealing, meaningful, or just plain fun that you can remember. Could be your life motto, could be the words of a song.. it doesn’t really matter. As an example, I will use the sentence, “What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas”
This becomes: WHIVSIV.

2- Let’s alternate the caps on that password:
WhIvSiV

3- Let’s add a special character in the middle:
WhIv$SiV

At this point, you have created your base password. as it is right now, it’s pretty secure. However, if this is all you use for all the websites you log in to, if this password happens to get compromised, the all the other websites are potentially compromised.
For this reason, we’re going to add a variable that will completely protect you against this.

4- Every site that you access that has a password, has a name, of course, at this point, you take your base password, and you append the first and last letter of that site/service to the password.
For example: for your amazon.com site, the first and last letters are “a” and “n”, now reverse them, and add them to your password. Now, your new password for Amazon.com will be:
nWhIV$SiVa
Similarly, for your paypal password, you’ll get:
lWhIv$SiVp

At this point, it doesn’t matter how many websites you’ve signed up for, and it doesn’t matter if you remember the password, you’ll be able to make it up, just as long as you remember your base password.

As a bonus/alternative, some sites do not allow you to have special characters in your password, so for these sites, you can have a different algorithm that you know to try: it’s very simple.
First, remove the special character from the password:
For instance Amazon’s password will now be:
nWhIvSiVa

Now add the last 2 digits of your birthday, REVERSED at the end of the password. So, if I’m born in 1976, the last 2 digits of my password will be 67, and therefore, my amazon password is now:
nWhIvSiVa67

I hope this small tutorial will help you try to stay on top of your passwords, and help you avoid writing them on a little sticky and slap them on the bottom of your keyboard in the office!