Wifi-Sync 1Pwd Windows with 1Pwd on iPhone

NewOnWin

Hi,

over the last 2 years i used 1Password on my Mac an on my iPhone. I stored the data files on the local disc (not in Dropbox).



Due to several reasons i moved to Windows 7 and bought a new version of 1Password for Windows. I was able to import all data from my backup and 1Password for Windows 7 works almost as good as on my old Mac.



BUT: i was not able to find out how to configure a Wifi Sync from 1Pwd Windows to my 1Pwd on my iPhone. Where can i configure it in 1Pwd for Windows?



Please note that i do not want to store my data on Dropbox. Just a few days ago they lost some passwords and data. I know that my pwd files will be stored in encrypted files. But i believe that Cloud is a great thing to store many things except passwords.



Hope somebody can help



Thanks!

khad

Welcome to the forums, NewOnWin! I'm sorry if there was any confusion.



[url="http://help.agilebits.com/1Password_Windows/wi-fi-sync.html"]As stated in the 1Password for Windows User Guide[/url]:



[quote]The Wi-Fi sync option available in 1Password for Mac relies on elements of OS X that have no counterpart in Windows. Dropbox works with 1Password for Mac and for Windows and with our apps for iOS and Android OS, and we believe it provides the best sync solution.



There is currently no plan to implement Wi-Fi sync in 1Password for Windows.[/quote]



Now before I say more about using Dropbox to sync 1Password data, I want to say that it is great that you are thinking about these things. You should [b]absolutely[/b] be skeptical of any service that stores (and especially syncs) your sensitive data if you have not thoroughly vetted it. I would love to help you better understand how 1Password does this so you can make an informed decision for yourself.



As a side note, the recent news you have heard about Dropbox included no stolen passwords, and certainly no 1Password data. We have a blog post that explains what actually happened. There was no breach. Dropbox was not hacked or exploited. It was a simple case of password reuse:



[url="http://blog.agilebits.com/2012/07/31/password-reuse-dropbox/"]http://blog.agilebit...-reuse-dropbox/[/url]





Even knowing that Dropbox was not hacked and no passwords were stolen, I'd like to also make it clear that (as mentioned in the aforelinked blog post) from the moment we designed the Agile Keychain data format we ensured that it was able to withstand an attack should your data fall into the wrong hands, either as a result of a Dropbox breach or if someone physically stole your computer. As such, we use 128-bit AES encryption to protect your sensitive 1Password data as well as many other mechanisms to stop an attacker from ever accessing your information and we detail this here:



[url="http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/cloud_storage_security.html"]http://help.agilebit...e_security.html[/url]



Please do read the document carefully. Your 1Password data is incredibly well-protected. In fact, the preeminent password cracking tool called John the Ripper recently began specifically targeting 1Password data files. 1Password has been ready for this for a very long time. You can read about how your data is protected from top password crackers like John the Ripper in our blog post here:



[url="http://blog.agilebits.com/2012/07/31/1password-is-ready-for-john-the-ripper/"]http://blog.agilebit...ohn-the-ripper/[/url]



So, as long as you use a secure master password that you don't use elsewhere, your 1Password data is incredibly safe even when stored on a service like Dropbox. If you're not sure about the strength of your master password, please do take a look at our recent blog post on this:



[url="http://blog.agilebits.com/2011/06/toward-better-master-passwords/"]http://blog.agilebit...ster-passwords/[/url]



I tell you all this not to convince you to use Dropbox. That is a personal decision and one no one else can make for you. I just want to make sure you are working with all the facts and understand how the 1Password data format and syncing its data via Dropbox actually works so you can make an educated decision.



If you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know. I would be happy to help more.



Cheers,

NewOnWin

Khad,

thanks for your long answer and deep explaination.

Honestly i would still prefer not to store the highly encypted 1pwd files on the internet. Therefor my question if there is any other way to sync 1pwd between Windows and iPhone or Windows Phone. I understand that Wifi is no option. But maybe using a cable and iTunes?

Second question: as i am not allowed to install Dropbox on my companies PC is there a way to use SkyDrive instead? I read in the FAQs that Agilebits makes some tests with SkyDrive. Is it possible today?



Thanks!

khad

I'm glad I could help a bit. I would draw a strong distinction between storing 1Password data on the [public] Internet and securely in a Dropbox account, though. That's outlined a bit more in the aforelinked "Security of storing your 1Password data in the cloud" document



[url="http://help.agilebits.com/1Password3/cloud_storage_security.html"]http://help.agilebit...e_security.html[/url]



Apple's does not allow any third party developer to sync via USB through iTunes.



If you only wish to sync 1Password with desktop operating systems, you can use [b]any[/b] file-based sync solution. However, the situation is a bit more complex in the mobile apps. Currently, Dropbox is the only sync option for 1Password on mobile devices.



The short answer to “Have you considered X as an alternative sync solution” is “Yes” for every value of X that people have asked about. We have considered them, and have had to reject them for various technical reasons.



Each item in your 1Password data is stored in its own, separate, file. This is great for syncing in that it means that only the changes need to sync and this can be done by file and folder syncing. This not only makes syncing faster and cheaper, it also makes it much more reliable and robust against potential data corruption. But this also means that 1Password needs to read lots of different files quickly as it runs. Dropbox does fast syncing while storing the local files on the native local file systems, allowing it to function properly.



As an illustration, an alternative such as WebDAV (which we worked on extensively but had to abandon before we moved to Dropbox) provides a file system abstraction layer that is just too slow for 1Password. It can hang when we try to access some file that it hasn’t cached properly. Also WebDAV isn’t designed for updating many files is quick succession. It’s not that WebDAV is bad, but it isn’t suitable for how we would use it.



Everything else we’ve looked at (and we have looked at many things) suffers not only from the same problems we saw with WebDAV, but they also lack usable APIs for all the platforms we need to support. It may be possible, for example, to sync data to an Android or iOS device using SugarSync, Wuala, SpiderOak, etc., but it isn’t possible to sync that data in a way that would make it available to 1Password on those devices.



We are very much looking at services like Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive. At first glance it appears that they do have some of the crucial technical characteristics that we need (which so far only Dropbox has had).



What I can say at this point is that these are initially more promising than other sync services that we've looked at. The most crucial criterion is that on the desktop the files are genuinely stored on the local, native, file system. Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive appear to do that. But there are other criteria that will take more time to evaluate.



So I do have to ask for patience. It takes time to go from "initially promising" to "more thoroughly investigated" to "developing code to test" to "testing internally" to "beta testing" to "ready for users".



I can't even promise a timeline on "more thoroughly investigated", but I can certainly let you know that we are aware of these and other potential options.



If we can be of further assistance in the meantime, please let us know. We are always here to help!

NewOnWin

Khad,



understanding that everything is a question of a strong enough password i would still prefer to NOT store my most important data externaly. As 1password for windows lacks on Wifi Sync i can not sync between Windows and my Smartphone at the moment.



Have you looked at owncloud (owncloud.org). In short words this is like Dropbox at home. Works perfectly and seems to get more and more users. They even have builds to run it on NAS appliances. This solution will overcome the need to put 1password files outside my home network but still with the possibility to sync all PCs, Macs and Smartphones.



Thanks!

khad

Thanks for the suggestion, NewOnWin! As I mentioned above, the short answer to “Have you considered X as an alternative sync solution” is “Yes” for every value of X that people have asked about. We have considered them, and have had to reject them for various technical reasons.



It may be possible, for example, to sync data to an Android or iOS device using ownCloud, but it isn’t possible to sync that data in a way that would make it available to 1Password on those devices.



We are exploring some options in the future, but I don't have anything to announce right now.