I don’t know about you, but I am drowning in a sea of user IDs and passwords.

To begin with, I have an ID and a password to log in to my computer. I have another set to access my e-mail. Yet another for my on-line banking. And for Amazon, Buy.com, Oversotck.com, goDaddy.com, and Network Solutions. In fact, I have lost track of how many online IDs and passwords I have.

“Now wait a minute!”, you might say, “Why don’t you click on that little link that says, “Forgot Password?” and they will e-mail it to you right away”. 

That is easily said than done. The first reason this course of action fails for me most of the time is that I have to enter my user id. I am never sure as to what my user ID for any given site is. Every site has its own rules. Some sites want me to use my e-mail address; others want me to use an ID of my choice. “My choice” is actually a misnomer; I rarely have a choice. Any 6-8 letter combination of letters of numbers is already taken by someone else (or maybe even by me!). To complicate matters further, some sites want an ID of a maximum of 6 characters; others want a minimum of 8 characters. I just can’t have a uniform ID across all the sites I visit.

The second problem is defunct e-mail addresses. I have changed ISPs a few times over the last ten years. Each one gave me an e-mail address. Of course, I got wiser a few years ago and got my own domain. But I still have registrations out there that have the now-defunct e-mail addresses. So the password that they e-mail never gets through to me.

The third problem is that every Johnny on the Internet wants me to register and part with my personal information, which I understandably don’t want to part with. So time and again, I find myself registering at random sites with cooked-up e-mail addresses. Naturally, I don’t remember them.

If, somehow, I manage to get past the ID hurdle, the next demon that confronts me is “Secret Word”. It is also known as “Secret Key”, “Password Reminder”, “Memory Jogger”, or something like that depending on how vivid the developer’s imagination is. Some sites allow you to enter your own question, which is yet another thing to remember. (If people can’t remember their passwords, how can they remember the reminder for their password is one of those unsolved mysteries).  Others are a bit kind to you and present a list of questions that fall into two categories: ones that you don’t want to answer and ones that you have no answers to. “What is your mother’s maiden name?” is a question I don’t want to answer for obvious reasons. “What is the name of your first pet?” is a question I can’t answer because I never had a pet. “Who was your favorite teacher?” is yet another unanswerable question, because almost all of my teachers handed out more punishments to me that instruction. So, to get past the screen during registration, I invariably have to cook up an answer, which I can’t remember later.

Assuming that I conquer this challenge as well, some sites, probably in recognition of my valiant efforts, e-mail the password to me. Other mean spirited sites send out an e-mail stating that my password has been reset and send me a one-time password that has to be changed before I can get into the site. Then my nightmare begins all over again. Almost always, a password acceptable to me is not acceptable to the site. Some sites require a special character in a password; some others reject passwords that contain special characters. Some sites accept any special character; others can’t stand underscores and the pound sign. I even had a site tell me that it did not like my new password because it matched the current password but I had to change it because I had got a one-time password, which made the current password inoperable. 

I consider myself web literate. I make a living off the web, for crying out loud. And yet, this is my plight. So you can imagine what mere mortals have to go through. Not having the right ID, password, and e-mail address handy when you need it is just an annoyance for individuals, but for businesses it can be a real nightmare. A common situation I deal with is clients not knowing the ID and password for their accounts with their domain registrar. My client does not know the ID or password on the account, and almost always, the e-mail address on the account belongs to someone who…

1. has renounced all worldly communication devices and moved to Timbuktu


2. has been dead for several years


3. is a former employee that can’t be traced


4. is an ex-spouse who is not on talking terms


5. can’t be reached for some other equally ridiculous reason

It usually takes several days to sort such a mess out.

You can avoid these pitfalls by following a few simple rules:

1. Create an e-mail account – preferably in your own domain, not at hotmail or gmail – for your business that will solely be used for site registrations. Use it for all registrations and make your employees do the same.
   
   


2. Most sites will e-mail you a registration confirmation that includes the ID and password. Store those messages in a separate folder in the mailbox for that account. The same applies to messages that confirm password changes. If a site does not send you a confirmation, send yourself a message containing the ID and password.
   
   


3. Do the important registrations, such as domain names, yourself and store the IDs and passwords separately so that others can’t access them.
   
   


4. If you are the organized type, get a password manager and record all the registrations in it. But personally, I find it easier to store them in my mailbox as outlined above.

IDs, passwords, and registrations are business assets. Treat them as such. Even if you don’t know or understand what the ID and password is for, make sure you have a record of it. You can never say when you will need it.