Most Internet users are aware of the importance of coming up with unique passwords when registering for sites or services, but in practice this isn't particularly easy to do. Such is the wide range of sites that require you to log in with user details, the common thing to do is reuse the same password over and over again; and unless you've got a particularly good memory, these tend to be fairly basic.

Not only are you at risk of people being able to ‘guess' your password, there's also the danger of hackers using key-logging software or other remote tools to gather information from the files stored on your PC.

One solution to this problem is to use a password manager, and the latest version from Steganos is one such tool. After a short installation process the software will fire up and ask you to enter a profile name and a master password, which will be used to protect all of your other passwords. The idea is that this will be the only password you'll need in the future, so it's worth coming up with something unique. You're told exactly how secure the text that you've entered is, as well as being given the choice to randomly generate a secure password via the software.

The main interface is a rather simple affair with a list of profiles on the left and textboxes to enter data on the right. Profiles can be created for different categories, such as ‘work', ‘personal', or perhaps other family members. New entries can be created in each profile, containing details of various Web sites and their relevant login information.

This isn't the easiest process to get to grips with but there are several ways to do it. The most straightforward is to enter login details for a site as you would normally, then, before clicking ‘OK' to log in, right-click a text box and you'll see a ‘Steganos Password Manager' link on the context menu.

From here you can choose to auto-fill entries, which will populate the Password Manager database with your username, password and URL for the site. Whenever you visit this site in the future, your login details will be entered for you and you'll see a dotted blue line around the textboxes to indicate that Steganos has done its work.

While it might take you a while to get a profile populated, it's important to remember that you only have to do this once for each site, so there is a clear convenience to the software. In addition you'll find that you can copy profiles to USB sticks, which will offer you access to your password database on remote machines, and can synchronise with PDAs and other portables to use on the move.

A couple of extra features found in the package attempt to give it a bit of added appeal, but we didn't find either particularly useful. A tool called PicPass allows you to select from a combination of pictures, the sequence of which will then generate a password for you. You'll then need to recreate the selection to effectively enter the password and allow access. You'll also find that you can add fields to an extended view for adding addresses or credit card details on certain sites. Once entered you can drag and drop these onto the relevant boxes to speed up the process.

All of this data, including any passwords, usernames and other information, is encrypted using the software and can only be accessed by someone with the master password you set up to begin with, so it certainly offers peace of mind for those concerned about the problems highlighted above.

Steganos Password Manager is undoubtedly a helpful piece of software but we'd have liked it to be a little better integrated into a Web browser, or at least be more adept at automating the extras on offer such as form-filling for additional information. There are ways to do all of this through the package, though, and if you're willing to take the time to build and maintain a database it offers both security and convenience for those who become frustrated at entering login information on multiple sites.