Every time you sign onto a new web service, whether it is Flickr, StumbleUpon, Twitter, or whatever, you will need to create an account, and that process includes generating a password for some level of security. However, good passwords need to include a variety of characters including lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols, and generating these passwords can be cumbersome.

The pwgen extension for Mozilla Firefox can help reduce some of the annoyances when signing up for new accounts by creating passwords for you. Once installed, merely click a "P" icon on the bottom-right of the Firefox status bar and a password will appear directly overhead. For your convenience, it is copied directly to the clipboard so you can paste it into a password management application. And if you don't like the password or don't find it tough enough for your needs, just click the "P" again to generate a new one.

1. Visit the following page from within Firefox:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12441

2. Click the "Add to Firefox" button.

3. The "Software Installation" dialog box will eventually appear. Click "Install Now" as soon as the button is enabled.

4. Once the add-on has installed, click the "Restart Firefox" button. Depending on your configuration, Firefox may note that it will try to restart your windows and tabs.


5. Once Firefox has restarted, click the "P" icon to generate a password. You may first, however, wish to modify some settings. Right-click the "P" icon and choose "Options" from the pop-up menu that appears.


The "pwgen" dialog box appears. From here you can modify several options that may depend on the password requirements of a particular service:

* Choose whether the starting and/or ending characters may include lowercase and/or uppercase letters, numbers, and "special characters". You may wish to uncheck the "special characters" boxes for compatibility with most systems.

* Enter the password length underneath "Password Length" (the default is 8).

* Check or uncheck the "display the password" box to display the password onscreen.

* Check or uncheck the "copy to clipboard" box to copy the password to the clipboard so it can be pasted into an external password management application.

When done, click "OK" to save your settings.

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