** "from the bottom of my heart, off the coast of Carolina, after one or two false starts ** Someone, apparently, hacked my email account ...snip... or paper or something about nonsense passwords that could be remembered ...snip... TIA to any and all who attempt to help , I wish you happiness.. and offer extra good karma points to anyone who has an idea. =========================================================== Seems to be I have read an recent (this year) article about that subject. And, if memory serves correctly, it basically said something on the order of NOT using words stuck together with special characters, and obviously not just words (on newer computers, dictionary attacks are too quick for you to react) and just numbers are even quicker to crack. The suggestion was letters (plus other characters) that mean something to you, which are not acronyms, but closer to mnemonics. Example mlg.is!2 could mean something like "my little girl is 2" or Ilc.bSd could mean "I like chocolate. but SHE doesn't" mix numbers, special characters, and don't use words (except for you to remember it). fwiw2u (for what it's worth "2" you) Good Luck