I am a staunch Chrome user. I downloaded the LastPass installer, and basically all it did was let me create an account, and then offered to install the plugin for every browser I have installed. After that, it started my default Chrome browser, which, like most Google apps, became the main hub from then on. Being a browser app, it means the interface doesn't look as polished as 1Password, nor does it provide its velvety smooth interactions. It most certainly doesn't offer the pretty templates and graphics of eWallet or SPB Wallet.
There is no indication where your local files are stored, and that is not an omission, because all your data resides mostly "in the cloud". I say mostly, because it is actually stored locally, then seamlessly synced with some main server, presumably in LastPass' care. I'd like to emphasize that this is 100% safe, as the data is thoroughly encrypted before it even makes its way to the web.
At first, the fact they purely "do business in the cloud" made me very reluctant to use LastPass. I am of the old school who is used to keep my files close at hand. It is only recently that I discovered the benefits of Dropbox... and LastPass takes it all a big leap forward from that once again. My biggest fear was that if they go out of business, or if their server collapses, I might find myself without my data. However, LastPass has been around for a few years now, and it seems they are not about to "kick the bucket" any time soon.
So, I got over my initial reserves and used LastPass for about a week. From then on, there was no going back. One huge benefit of the cloud storage is that when I open LastPass on my Android and change a password, it is immediately synced back to any machine I use... something none of the other programs offer. But LastPass does so much more that really makes my digital life easy. I spent the $12 for a year's subscription of premium features, which means that now Murray and I can both have our own profile.For example, when he visits the Gmail site, he is logged in automatically, and when I visit the same site on my machine, it logs me in as "me". When I select my work profile and visit the same site once more, it will log me in with my Google Apps account. Who could wish for any more convenience than that?
One featured I really loved about 1Password is the grouping of sites, in which you can bundle for example amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk together and you will be logged into all with the same account. LastPass offers the same functionality. LastPass may be slightly crude in appearance, but I soon learned that the developers really thought of everything! Yes, I have fallen in love again with a program.
LastPass if absolutely unobtrusive, but it is there when I need it. When I visit a site and log in, it offers to remember my login for me. When I revisit that site later, it immediately fills the fields, and all I have to do is click "Enter". I can opt to skip even that and be fully logged in as soon as I visit the site! Unfortunately, even though it offered to import all my 1Password data, it did not translate very well and both the usernames and passwords ended up in the "comment" field... so I found myself having to re-log into every single site again to allow LastPass to grab the information.
My husband, being even more a creature of habit than myself, has created accounts on hundreds of sites and forums over the years, and recently we found out his (one) password is one of the worst 500 of all times. With LastPass, I was finally able to break that habit - without him knowing even! I switched to his profile, visited the sites he frequents, entered his data, then had LastPass generate a super strong password. It immediately offered to replace the stored password with the new one, which of course I did. Now, when Murray visits any of his sites, he doesn't even realize his passwords have changed, because he gets logged in auto-magically! All he needs to do is remember our brand new, super strong, fancy password, and only has to re-enter it once every two weeks.
There are other clever solutions, such as when a site uses a different format (for example instead of a username, it requires a mobile phone number), and LastPass does not automatically understand that it needs to save this information, all you need to do is click "Save all Entered Data". Next time you visit the site, it will prefill it all neatly.
Lastly, I found the forum helpful and rather friendly, though the staff is not as obliging as the 1Password crowd. Still, whenever I needed help, I got my answers quick enough. Likewise with sending in a ticket, it took a day or two to get back to me, but then my problem was solved swiftly and satisfactory.
The only thing I am still slightly weary about is the all-cloud solution, but that is probably just me. It is easy to export all information keep it in 1Password as a backup
All in all, for now, LastPass is our first choice to store our passwords, hands on. I haven't found any features lacking yet, and as I said, it does what it needs to do really, really well.
Comments
Post a Comment