Can someone help me figure this out.

[Vanyel]

My nephew asked me a question today when i gave him the code to my router. It's a 16 digit, randomly generated, alphanumeric code where upper and lower case do not count.

He asked how many possible combinations are there?

So how do I figure that out? Each code must be unique, so I know that lowers the total number of possible combinations.

Don't worry, I know my nephew is no hacker, hes just too lazy and bad at math or programming to put the effort into it, plus he's a good kid who'd rather work as an electrician like his grandfather (my Dad); and I'm too old to want to go to jail.

So how many unique combinations are there and how do you figure it out?

 

[MacLeod]

The Maths to work it out is fairly simple. It's an alphanumeric code so you have 26 letters + 10 numbers meaning you have 36 possible outcomes for each of the 16 parts of the alphanumeric code so it's

36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36x36 =

If each part has to be different it's

36x35x34x33x32x31x30x29x28x27x26x25x24x23x22x21 =

 

[captcalhoun]

1.3367495 to the 31st power.

if i read my calculator screen right.

 

[MacLeod]

A nice small number then.

 

[Vanyel]

Thank you, guys.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's probably not an actual alphanumeric code. It is more likely a hexadecimal code, where the range is 0-F (0-9 then A-F). Each of those digits represents 16 bits, and there are 16 of them, so that's 256 bits total (16*16).

 

[Tiberius]

The best passwords are five or six normal words, chosen at random.

Notion begin yesterday giving shellfish.

Easy to remember, but hard for a computer program to crack.

And if you can't think of something, just watch DS9: Babel... :P

 

[captcalhoun]

cellar door.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Can someone tell me how safe my method for passwords is.

I choose a book and then a page number. The page number makes up the first one, two or three numbers of my password. Then i look up the first six words on the second line on that page and use the first letter of each word. If there any capital letters I put them in uppercase. Then I put my favouite number at the end. So usually my password is 10 digit long. i find it easy to remember as I only have to remember the first number and the six words from thr book.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Sounds reasonable enough.

 

[Vanyel]

It's probably not an actual alphanumeric code. It is more likely a hexadecimal code, where the range is 0-F (0-9 then A-F). Each of those digits represents 16 bits, and there are 16 of them, so that's 256 bits total (16*16).

No, there is a "Z" in there.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's probably not an actual alphanumeric code. It is more likely a hexadecimal code, where the range is 0-F (0-9 then A-F). Each of those digits represents 16 bits, and there are 16 of them, so that's 256 bits total (16*16).

No, there is a "Z" in there.

Weird! In that case, I wonder why they don't allow other symbols, for increased security.