Bitwarden FAQ

This isn’t a replacement for the official Bitwarden FAQ, but is meant to be specific to bw.tadzplace.com and answer a few questions that might come up.

Why should I use Bitwarden?

I cover the reasons why I chose Bitwarden, and another more official answer can be found at bitwarden.com.

Why not use Bitwarden’s online service?

If you go to bitwarden.com, you can sign up for their free service and use their cloud-based servers for free in the same manner as using bw.tadzplace.com. The advantages to using bw.tadzplace.com could be seen as:

  • Knowing who manages the data (I do)
  • Knowing where your data lives
  • Knowing how your data is handled

However, in reality, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use vault.bitwarden.com if you want to; I won’t take offense!

Can you, as an admin, see my information?

The information seen as an admin is simply your username. I have absolutely no ability to see your passwords, whether that’s the one that you use to login to the site or the ones contained in your vault. All of that is either not sent to the site or encrypted before it even lands on my server, so all I have is a database with a collection of useless encrypted text in it.

This, and other security-related information, can be found in the security section Bitwarden’s help site.

Is my information backed up?

Yes.

The Bitwarden software creates daily backups of the actual database that contains all vaults and retains that information for 30 days. My server backs up the entire site daily to alternate storage, which contains all previous 30 days of database backups as well as the site configuration itself. This information is then backed up daily to an encrypted location in the cloud for off-site protection.

Where is this hosted?

bw.tadzplace.com is hosted on a local server in my home office.

What happens if your server isn’t available?

I’ll answer this in a more holistic fashion, as the scenario is technically the same if any of the following events occur:

  • server is down for maintenance (rare, and scheduled)
  • either you or I have failed network connectivity (very rare for me)
  • server is down due to failure (extremely rare)
  • you are traveling and don’t have any connectivity at all (I hope this is a frequent issue for you)

In all of these situations, the web-based access will flat-out not work, meaning you can’t log directly into bw.tadzplace.com. This would seem obvious, but I just want to be clear. Your mobile app and desktop app, however, should function as you’d expect and you’ll have access to your entire vault. You can even add entries and they’ll be synced when the site is available again. I suppose there are edge cases where you’ve added something to the vault on the web interface and the site goes down before something is synced to your desktop or mobile app, but I’d say that has a very low risk of happening.

How often will Bitwarden be updated?

Bitwarden overall is updated frequently (there were ~19 releases in 2018), and I am notified when a new release is available. If there are critical security issues resolved or requested functionality available, I’ll update the site immediately. Otherwise, I’ll normally update 5-10 days after the release comes out to be safe.

In general, I won’t notify everyone that an update is occurring (it’s just emails that will clog up your inbox). If new features or functionality will dramatically change your Bitwarden experience, I’ll let you know beforehand. If there are issues with an upgrade that make the site unavailable for 1+ hours, I’ll also send out notification to make sure you know. If you find that the site is unavailable or your passwords aren’t syncing between your mobile or desktop app and the web interface, please let me know and I’ll look into it ASAP.

Can I share passwords?

Yes, but it comes at a cost. I’ve licensed a family organization on the site currently, but that covers my immediate family only (5 users). If you have a definite need for this, it simply goes to a calculation of $12/user/year ($1/month/user). So, if you have passwords that you want to share to another person, it will cost $24/year. Unfortunately, the initial license of 5 didn’t cost this much (it was $12/year total), but after the first 5 the cost goes up. If you really want this functionality and only need to share to another person, it might be more beneficial for you to use Bitwarden’s online vault (still free), as I believe you can share with one other person for free with their licensing. It would mean you’d switch away from my self-hosted site onto their cloud-hosted service, but that isn’t a big deal.

Is there a limit to where I can install this?

Nope. Knock yourself out. I’d advise installing it everywhere that you might need passwords at some point, such as phones, multiple PCs (work if allowed, home, etc.), and any tablets you use to surf the web. There’s no restrictions, and your information will sync everywhere.