Technology Advisor Blog



What's my email password?

Posted by Ann Westerheim on 12/13/16 2:57 PM

Cybersecurity is a hot topic these days.  We need "strong" passwords, we're not supposed to use the same pasword for multiple applications, and we need to change passwords on a regular basis.  It's hard to remember all the passwords, and especially hard when you don't even know a password exists!   Your email has a password, but its likely you don't remember it because you don't usually need it on a regular basis.

ekaru_password_manager

Who can survive without email?  It’s an essential tool for business!

You’re busy and on the go and probably reading email on your smart phone, laptop, iPad, office computer, and webmail. 

There’s a password for your email, but after your device is programmed the first time, you don’t have to enter it again.  What a pain it would be to have to enter your password each time you read email on your phone, or any of your other devices …over and over again!

The flip side of this is “out of sight – out of mind”:  most people don’t remember what their password is.  Even if you use webmail where you do have to submit a password each time you access mail, your browser is probably “remembering it for you”.

All is well until you get a new phone, computer, iPad, laptop, or any other device. When you set up your new phone, you’ll need your password again.  So you call tech support and ask “What’s my email password?”   The problem is that, for security reasons, we can’t see your password and we don’t know what it is!   We can re-set it for you, which means we assign you a new password.  Now you can quickly get email set up on your phone and you’re back in action!

Later in the day, you may try to access email from your laptop, and you may be very frustrated to see that your email is broken – “Why do I have so many problems with my email!?”

Actually, Microsoft Outlook will just prompt you for your new password.   Enter that password and you’re good to go! Your new password will need to be entered to all your devices, and then you’ll be all set.  

If you want to avoice the hassles of a password reset (which isn't really that bad when you understand why, and how it works), there's no simple solution other memorizing the password (just like school!) or storing your password in a secure location.

Topics: eMail, password

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