Yep, that’s right, anywhere. Even Windows and Linux.
So you guys already know I’m a big fan of Dropbox right? If you didn’t, read up on my earlier post Dropbox + iTunes 9 = Automatically add songs to a remote copy of iTunes.
# You guys, 1Password is really rad
This tip is another neat little use for Dropbox using my favorite password manager: 1Password. So 1Password is an awesome app for OS X for keeping track of and generating your passwords. Note, it’s not free. But a little googling will find you a discount. Personally, I find this app (and the companion iPhone app) to be well worth the price. I use it to keep track everything, from logins to WiFi passwords to bank account numbers to software licenses. It’s a fine piece of software, plugs into your mac browsers, and is pretty darn secure.
So anyway, this tip assumes you’re already using 1Password. Now suppose you’ve got multiple computers, like me, and some of them (gasp!) aren’t even macs (I know!). But you’d still like to be able to access your passwords (securely!) from anywhere. As it turns out this, is extremely easy to do across macs using Dropbox. In fact, the fine folks at 1Password even wrote a very detailed explanation of how to do it. Another thing you should note, the 1Password app has what I consider a “reasonable” licence…you pay per user, not computer. So yes, go ahead and register that second mac with the same 1Password license. They’re cool with that. :)
OK, but then you’re at work or something, where maybe they force you to use Windows or something (ewww, Windows) or maybe Linux, who knows. And now you can’t remember your password to that one site you’d really like to login into right now. Whatever will you do?
Well, since you’ve probably already got Dropbox installed (since you can stick that pretty much anywhere), you’re in luck, thanks to a nifty little feature of 1Password called 1PasswordAnywhere. Navigate to the folder inside of Dropbox where you saved your 1Password agile keychain. The keychain will appear as a folder in Windows or Linux. Open up that folder and inside you’ll notice a file called 1Password.html.
Ohhh, what does that do?
Yup, a fully functional web app version of your 1Password database, fully password protected, usable from any computer that has a web browser. (You know, all of them.)
BIG CAVEAT: This database is read-only, so you can’t add or generate passwords via the web app.
# Prism: Turn that Web App into an actual App
Time for another little utility I’m a big fan of! This time it’s Prism, from Mozilla. Basically, Prism lets you turn web apps into pseudo-applications. And that’s what I decided to do with 1Password on my Windows laptop, since I couldn’t install 1Password itself.
Download and install Prism. Now we’re going to create an application for 1Password. Start up Prism and enter the URL for your new app, which will in this case be something like
file:///C:/Users/<yourusername>/My Dropbox/1Password.agilekeychain/1Password.html
You can just copy and paste the URL from the browser when you clicked that .html file earlier. Name it 1Password and choose where you want the shortcut located. I put it on my Desktop. You can even choose an icon for your App, I used this .png file I found upon the internets (© Agile Web Solutions, naturally).
Now you should have a shortcut to your 1Password app.
Open it up:
Ta-da!
# And when I say anywhere, I really do mean anywhere.
I previously mentioned the iPhone app for 1Password, which would let you keep your 1Password database synced to your phone.
But suppose, heaven forbid, you don’t have an iPhone? And say you’re using a computer that’s not yours and doesn’t have Dropbox installed, now what?
Don’t worry, Dropbox has a handy web interface, and since all your data is stored in the cloud, it’s available from any computer with an internet connection. Just head on over to the Dropbox website and navigate to the folder where you saved the keychain and find the html file, just as you did on your computer earlier. Click the link, and there’s your 1Password database, still protected with your master password.
Taking it even a step further, there are some add-ons for dropbox (sadly, Windows-only at this point) which will let you sync your Dropbox to a portable USB drive, DropboxPortable and DropboxU3 (for U3 drives). With your Dropbox sync’ed to your keychain, you can even access your 1Password db without an internet connection, by simply navigating to the 1Password.html file in your keychain and clicking on it.
Have any other ideas for accessing 1Password anywhere? Post a comment!
Update (12/13/09): Check out my new post on integrating 1Password into Chrome on Windows using Xmarks.
