Not particularly original...

[Mr B Rabbit]

Just had this one happen in the last twenty minutes.

Me: Me
FS: Forgetful Student

Me: Can I help you?
FS: I've forgotten my password.
Me: No problem, what's your username?
FS: Blahblah
Me: Right, I've set your password to password and you'll need to change it when you log on.
FS: But I don't know your password.
Me: I've just set it to password for you.
FS: But I don't know it.
Me: *writes down their new password* That's your new password, just type in p.a.s.s.w.o.r.d. and change it, okay?
FS: But I don't know my password. I forgot it.

After five minutes of this I finally get the message across. Two minutes later they're back outside the office.

Me: What's wrong?
FS: I've forgotten my password.
Me: I just changed it and wrote it down for you.
FS: I know, I logged on and changed it, but now it won't let me log on again. It says I've got an invalid password.
Me: Right...which computer are you on?
FS: I forgot.
Me: Can you take me to the room you're in and show me?
FS: Yes.

We go down to the room, I carefully ignore the comments that always occur when a long-haired techie walks into a room of teenagers. I go to the computer and type in their username, then the password 'password'. The computer logs them on.

Me: Right, there you go. Your password is password.
FS: Thanks.

Five minutes later, they're back.

Me: Now what?
FS: Well, the computer crashed so I had to log on again and I've forgotten my password.
Me: Right. Well, I'm going to set it to the name of the road you live in, can you remember that?
FS: Yes.

I pull up the student's details, find their address, and set it to their road name. Nice and simple. They go to log on.

FS: I can't log on.
Me: What's your address?
FS: Recites an address which isn't the one on the school records.
Me: Did you move recently?
FS: Yes, about a year ago.
Me: Maybe you should've told reception that. They've got your old address.
FS: Oh yes, I was meant to do that but forgot.

I set their password to their dog's name, after some questioning, head back to the office, close the door, lock it and turn off the lights for some quiet time playing Doom with the other techies.

[technical.angel]

Welcome!!

You'll fit in here just fine!!

Our minimum password limit is 4 characters. So, we usually would do 1234. I'm sure even that student would have problems.

Imagine explaining to that student that their password was (blank), no password. That one's fun!

:smash: :angel:

[IlovemyGeek]

OMG, I'm guessing that student still needs to have their mittens pinned to their shirt.

[SuperDan]

Our minimum password limit is 4 characters. So, we usually would do 1234.

[King Roland has given in to Dark Helmet's threats, and is telling him the combination to the "air shield"]
Roland: One.
Dark Helmet: One.
Colonel Sandurz: One.
Roland: Two.
Dark Helmet: Two.
Colonel Sandurz: Two.
Roland: Three.
Dark Helmet: Three.
Colonel Sandurz: Three.
Roland: Four.
Dark Helmet: Four.
Colonel Sandurz: Four.
Roland: Five.
Dark Helmet: Five.
Colonel Sandurz: Five.
Dark Helmet: So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

[Later...]
President Skroob: [enters after the interrogation of King Roland] Well? Did it work? Where's the king?
Dark Helmet: It worked, sir. We have the combination.
President Skroob: Great. Now we can take every last breath of fresh air from planet Druidia. What's the combination?
Dark Helmet: 1 2 3 4 5.
President Skroob: 1 2 3 4 5? That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage! Prepare Spaceball 1 for immediate departure!
Dark Helmet: Yes, sir!
President Skroob: And change the combination on my luggage!

[lordlundar]

If you had that memorized, you need to get out more.:lol: :devil:

[Geek King]

If you had that memorized, you need to get out more.:lol: :devil:

Nah, He fits in fine here. I suggest you keep your head down though, I like to play sniper online. :devil:

"This is an unlisted wall!"

[tollbaby]

Hey. Spaceballs is one of THE greatest movies ever made! All hail Mel Brooks :D

[BravoOrig]

There are so many great quotes from that movie, that I don't even know where to begin. Loved it as a kid, still love it now.
"She's gone from suck to blow!"

[TNT]

We used to always assign the password "changeme," figuring the customer would get a clue. It seldom happened...

Customer: Ah, dang, I forgot my password again.
Us: Try "changeme"
Customer: Oh, yeah, I remember now.

[Retail Associate]

OMG, I'm guessing that student still needs to have their mittens pinned to their shirt.

:rotflmao:

(Now I have to go get something to clean off my monitor)

[Gurndigarn]

We used to always assign the password "changeme," figuring the customer would get a clue. It seldom happened...

Customer: Ah, dang, I forgot my password again.
Us: Try "changeme"
Customer: Oh, yeah, I remember now.

Hey, that's a password so easy a baby could remember it.

[BusBus]

Hey, that's a password so easy a baby could remember it.

:rimshot:

I'm my own best friend...

[cpux]

OMG, I'm guessing that student still needs to have their mittens pinned to their shirt.
Or perhaps he's got a nameplate belt buckle he wears upside down. XD

[Buglady]

*quietly unpinning mittens and hiding them in pockets*

[Kilamon]

Taking a page out of the BOFH handbook, I no longer use simple passwords. Instead, I find that the randomly generated ones work best. In fact, they work really, really well. I use the generator at http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/ and get some really complicated 10-16 digt passwords. I have used the simple stuff like abc123 and etc in the past, but something about the high level of complexity gives me sheer joy in assigning. I'm unsure, but my theory is that this very complexity makes people afraid to lose their password and they always change it. In some cases, with problem lusers, I will extend the length of the password. Fourth time you've lost your password? You get a twenty character long password. :devil:

I really suggest you all try this. People will be scared to lose their passwords.

[technical.angel]

I think it would strongly depend on the atmosphere of the system. I possibly could get away with that for the students, but not faculty and staff.

Plus, we've made it too easy for the students, and they know they can just call us and change it. So, it would go on and on and on and on and on...

I'm coming up with rules to keep passwords stronger and safer. Of course, the ones I'm starting with is that you can't use your first name or last name or the password you had before. There's whining already over that already.

[Banrion]

My company just tightened our password rules. Thankfully my dad gave me an easy way to incorporate it all, and be really easy to remember. We are required to have:
Total of 8 characters
1 CAPITAL LETTER
1 lowercase letter
1 Speci@l (h@r@acter
1 Numeral

You also cannot have more than 2 characters repeted from the last password, and you cannot reuse a password for 12 mos.

[technical.angel]

Holy CRAP!

Although, I do agree with everything but the 2 characters from the old password. I mean, that's hard. Especially since they want 8 characters. It means you're pretty screwed on vowels.

Yowsers!