Facebook Sign In

The Facebook sign in initially requires a few bits of information from you, but after that, you'll be ready to find your friends, share your pictures, and chat away. You will be able to network effortlessly once you spend a bit of time filling out a short questionnaire to get your account started.

Signing In and Starting Up

To get your own profile, friends list, and the ability to share photos with all your new and old friends, you'll need to sign up for an account. That'll consist of a few steps:

• Enter your full name
• Enter your educational/professional status (college/graduate school, high school, or at a company)
• Enter your e-mail
• Enter a password for your account
• Give your date of birth
• Pass a security check which consists of two words separated by a space.
• Agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Then you're ready to sign up and get started.

The Facebook Sign In Page

Once you have an account set up, you can sign in from the front page at [http.//www,facebook.com]. It will just ask you for your e-mail address and the password you chose when you were signing up. As with most sites, you have the option to check a "Remember Me" box so that you don't have to enter your e-mail address and password every time you want to log in (and for those who are addicted to social networking sites such as MySpace, LiveJournal and Facebook, that's a definite time saver!).

If you've forgotten your password, you can click on that from the front page too. It's as simple as having it e-mailed to yourself right from the Facebook site, so don't forget your email password too! You'll get a link to click on directly from your e-mail that will allow you to reset your password.

Problems Signing In

If you're having problems signing in, you'll be happy to know that Facebook has a very thorough help page covering the reasons you may be having a difficult time with the Facebook sign in. Frequently asked questions include:

Why hasn’t my account been confirmed?

What browsers can I use with Facebook?

How do I change my email address?

Why isn't my name allowed?

What else do I need to sign up?

If you can't find the answers to your questions, you can still send a message to the Facebook support staff so that they may directly assist you with your problem.

What You Can't Sign In With

Sorry, you Paris Hiltons of the world—you'll have to use your real name. Facebook has a filter that won't allow you to sign in with obviously false names.

And if you have a Ph. D? Sorry, you'll have to advertise it some other way, because it's not allowed in your sign in name. Neither is your title, such as Mr., Mrs., Ms., etc. Keep it simple.

You also won't be able to use Facebook with any other browser besides Firefox (Mac and PC), Safari (Mac), or Internet Explorer (PC).

Passwords

The easy way to "remember" a password is to have your computer do it. Facebook gives you that option with the "Remember Me" button. However, they caution you to uncheck the box if you're using a public computer; otherwise people can easily stumble into your account and make up some very embarrassing situations for you to deal with—or lock you out of your whole account. To keep your computer from remembering your login information after you've already checked the Remember Me button, you can simply hit "Log Out" at the top of the page.

For more password information, visit the Facebook help page, available right from their homepage.

Once You Sign In

Once you sign in, you're ready to start chatting with old friends as well as new ones. You can sign up to join your high school or college network and reunite with your old sorority sisters, fellow football players, and anyone else you used to hang out with. From there, you could be introduced to someone with similar interests to yours or even your next new boss (or at least someone who can put in a good word for you with their boss and get you a better job).