Have I got the solution for you.

If you're like most of us, you've probably got dozens of passwords or logins, sprinkled over the web like squashed breadcrumbs leading to the Gingerbread House where some nasty old crank is going to ask you to check out the inside of the kitchen oven.

You feel overwhelmed with password management, and sure you're not using enough unique ones, or rotating them, or generating new ones every month or so (as the 'best' security advice seems to advocate). You can barely remember the ones you have and thinking of changing even one of them just might be the one card you CAN'T remove without the whole house of them crashing down around you.

Well, fear not! I have discovered the most amazing little app around, and for most users it is FREE. It's called PassPack and it's the niftiest, most easy to use system I've ever found in a dozen years of surfing and working online, and you simply can't beat the security features.

The methodology is you set up an account with passpack, and every time you login to a site, you open up passpack, login, and enter the data into your list of passwords. You can ask the software to generate a mashup password for you, and by clicking on the Generate tab, you can make a new one whenever you choose. You can assign keywords to sites and logins, so if you're forced to go to some dumb long cross-your-eyes web address and enter an obscure password string, all you have to remember is to type your shortcut or keyword in and bingo! you're at that password file. It's that easy.

There's a video introduction for the application available, and all of the pertinent information you need to make a decision to sign up for your free account.

Passpack has been favorably reviewed by many industry heavyweights - PC Magazine, CNet, WebWare, MashUp, Google, Chicago Tribune, Blog Nation - it even made it on to NBC's National Tech Report.

Now, I can hear the protestations. How can it be secure?! Why is it any better than storing it on my hard drive or in my PDA?

• Passpack can not even access your passwords, even in an emergency. (Think about it, if you need to leave a backdoor for your backdoor maybe you shouldn't be logging in places where you might be at risk for loss of data)
• There is no security in keeping them in a word or excel document, even if you password protect that file on your computer. It's one of the easiest hacks there is and that false sense of security could really cost you.
• Your data is never 'in transit' online. You login, through rigorous, multi-level security, and only you can see it. You can't save it to a USB and there's nothing to download. Once you're logged in you can access all of your information.
• Don't just rely on me - here's what it says on the Passpack site about security: "Very secure. Passpack uses a US Government approved algorithm to encrypt your passwords to which only you hold the key (the Packing Key that is). Plus, Passpack is the only online password manager to offer Anti-phishing protection and Disposable Logins."
• You are the only one who knows your packing key (a sentence of your own construction and punctuation). This also means if you well and truly forget it, all of your Passpack data is gone. Hey, you can't have it both ways.
• If you work in a public place or shared office, Passpack starts with your passwords scrambled and hidden from view. You click on it when you're ready to view the password.
• You don't even have to provide an email to signup, it's that secure! Just remember, if you don't put it in, they can't help you.

Passpack isn't just for web logins, either. You can use it to track frequent flyer miles, store registration numbers for software or hardware, notes, or even links you need to store in a safe place.

A nifty add on is a desktop application that syncs with Passpack online if you live somewhere with power outages or intermittent access to the Internet.

I've been using it for a few months and as long as I remember to add new information simultaneous to registering at a new web site or setting up a new blog account, I've found it to be one of the best tools I've ever tried.

JUST REMEMBER: Don't write your username/secret and passpack key sentence down anywhere on your system or in an easy place to find in your files.

USER TIP: I also have a recurring reminder through Outlook to login every couple of weeks just to keep the login process top of mind so I don't have to go looking for it in a panic another time.

The free account stores up to 100 passwords. Above that is the Pro level, at 15 Euros, about $20 USD. New solutions are coming for groups, and centralized deployment within a company's own server environment (enterprise).