So for most part, my e-mail situation is under control. The major issue now is unscrupulous companies – and they know who they are – who plant their unwanted advertising and spyware on computers. To my mind, this is trespass. They are unwelcome intruders – are they so desperate, and is their product or service so poor, that they must advertise in such questionable ways? Breaking into someone’s computer doesn’t seem best way to gain trust.

Anyone who even takes time to read these offers is only contributing to problem. Perhaps if they find that no one is paying attention, and that this form of advertising is counter-productive, (which in my case it is), they will find another way to hawk their wares.

Those sending spam have been put on notice that this won’t be tolerated. Perhaps we should do same for those who want to gain control of our computers without our consent.

Some sites only allow alphanumeric passwords so make sure you select appropriate check boxes when this is case.

Tip #3 - Very Important: Never type your master password when open PasswordSafe.

Keylogger spyware can record keystrokes.

How can you enter master password without typing? I do this.

Step 1: Open a Notepad file (.txt).

Step 2: Copy and paste an article from any Internet website to this .txt file.

Step 3: Select characters from this article and copy, paste to form your master password.

Tip #4 - Very Important: Never lose your master password.

I memorize my master password. In addition, I also physically write it down to a hand written study material that has my previous uni works. Among 1,000's of words, I placed my 22 characters master password in two different pages in encrypted format that can let me derive my master password.

Tip #5 - Categorize username and password.

When you add a new entry, you need to specify Group, Title, Username, Password, and Notes. The entries that share same Group name will be gathered together automatically.

One Group can contain another Group as its sub Group. For example, I have Email Address group which contains three sub-groups as Friend, Work, Family.

Tip #6 - For security reasons, always use Copy Username to Clipboard and Copy Password to Clipboard.

Remember, never type username and password on a web form. This is how to do it.

- Highlight an entry.

- Right click mouse.

- In pop-up menu, select Copy Username to Clipboard or Copy Password to Clipboard

- Go to your login form, paste username or password.

You can use mouse to do copy and paste. If you prefer short-cut keys, this is how.

Copy: Ctrl+C Paste: Ctrl+V

Tip #7 - Use "Browse to URL" rather than typing URL in browser address bar.

When you enter a new entry or edit an existing one, you can enter a URL (must start with http://) in Notes field. You can save website login page's URL in this field. When you need to open a login page in browser, right click entry and click Browse to URL in pop-up menu. Then login page will be opened in your default web browser automatically.

Tip #8 - Don't forget to backup your password database file.

Use Make Backup menu item to save a second copy of your password file.

Tip #9 - Store your backups in a different offline computer or location.

This is a widely used backup strategy.

If you don't have two computers, you need to use other storage media to save a second copy of your backup file and version them by date (easy to track back). Other storage media can be zip drive, thumb drive, floppy disk, CD, etc.

Off site backups are also important. Don't overlook this. You lose all your data if you lose both your computer and your other storage media all together for any reason.

Many companies provide online storage services for a fee. You can store any digital files (you should password protect these files first) on their secure servers. Search Google and you will find a lot.

I have two computers. One is used to surf net and it does not have any sensitive info stored on it. Another one is for my development work (not connected to Internet) and it has my backup files. I also store my backups in a thumb drive and CDs sometimes.