Gadgetory

I've got a nice strong password on my Google account but for some extra peace of mind I set up google's 2-step verification that means any time I try to log into Google or gmail from new computer phone or tablet whether it's mine or someone else's I'll have to enter a second unique password that Google will text my phone makes things a little inconvenient but a lot more secure here's how to do it first log in to your account at Google calm your email address on the right corner and then select account from this page select security in the left menu you'll see a setting for 2-step verification to switch it on click the edit button and log in again with your password on this page you'll see a link for turning on 2-step verification click it and you'll be walk through the process of adding your mobile phone number you'll receive an SMS message with a test code on your phone you enter that code into the box shown on your computer and click verify from here you'll get an opportunity to make the computer that you're currently using a trusted computer this means that you won't be inconvenienced with the 2-step process every time you use it now that 2-step verification is turned on you'll probably find that nothing works anymore if you have Gmail or Google Calendar running on your phone or Google music manager on your computer you'll need to take a minute to reauthorize it from this same page click the link for managing application-specific passwords enter your password again and then scroll down to the bottom section for your own reference type in the name of the thing that you're making a password for and then click the generate button you'll get a random password that you'll use instead of your standard password for whatever app that you're trying to authorize for example to get Gmail on this iPod touch here I would go into my mail settings edit my gmail account and then type in the generated password it's long but security doesn't come easy now you're going to have to repeat that process for all of your other devices since these passwords are app and device specific the upshot here is that if I lost my ipod I could use the same account page to revoke that password and cut off its access to my account without having to change the passwords on all of my devices finally if you find yourself bouncing between computers or bouncing around the globe google has an app called Authenticator for both iOS and Android and it can provide you with your 2-step authorization code even if you're out of cell phone range so there you go that's how to lock down your Google account with some serious security it's a bit of a pain but you'll rest a little easier for more how-to like these visit how to cnet.com for CNN I'm Donald Bell