I've just realised that despite it seeming obvious and fairly simple, the Apple Watch doesn't have a way to see the passwords/TOTP codes from the iCloud Keychain. Maybe I do need to switch those to Bitwarden after all.
It occurs to me that a lot of the solutions here are technically involved, which isn't a surprise given where I asked. But so far I haven't seen any can't-be-bothered-thinking-about-it, obvious and simple solutions.
Are the majority of people who don't like doing this stuff just not using 2FA, or just risking being locked out? All the people I know in this category are doing one of these options.
Some of these ideas are really becoming a rabbit-hole for me. I like the idea of forwarding SMS to email, but then you need an email provider who will never prompt for some sort of 2fA just because you're outside the country or on an unfamiliar device, and an always-on mobile device.
The email provider who will never ask for 2FA to get in might be harder than it sounds. I've heard a story which I believed at the time, of Gmail not letting someone in without approving on an old device, even with the password and correct TOTP. Something odd like SDF could work here.
I suppose the always-on device should have no battery. I once had an HTC smartphone that would power on with the battery remove, but would sometimes crash. I think people who run postmarketOS do something to not require the battery, but soldering seems to usually be involved. USB 4G modem, old laptop with built-in 4G?
Edit: Just adding that I'm a big fan of SDF.org, so would love if that turns out to be the least messy solution!
> email provider who will never prompt for some sort of 2fA
Or just forward it to a simple webapp that you design that runs in the cloud and only requires a password to login
> I suppose the always-on device should have no battery.
That might make you vulnerable to power outages. If you are worried about Lithium batteries being at 100% for an extended period of time, Samsung tablets (and probably phones) can be set to charge to 80% and stop.
Probably unnecessary detail because I assume it's solveable, but if you use key based auth for the SSH to the fixed desktop, how do you make sure you still have access to that key if you lose your main device/s?
I should probably have clarified - I don't actually use the phone as a backup for 2FA through SMS. That would probably require porting the number if something happened to the first phone, or setting up 2 seperate SMS 2FA methods on every account (where that is even possible). Also, I hate SMS 2FA.
I think of the 2nd phone as basically just a little portable computer with Bitwarden, and on which I could probably use some sort of messaging app or email while I replaced the first phone.
Yubikey is the popular answer so far. I have thought of that in the past, but never followed through on. Less versatile (can't run apps)? Certainly more portable.
Me too, but it might help to find become clear on which of the accounts you have 2FA turned on for could be reset by having them send an email, and which you would be locked out of.
The email providers I use all require 2FA, but as long as I had paper backups of recovery codes for those I could probably use those to get back into most other accounts. No comment on whether I do have aforementioned paper backups, or whether I'm just relying on having a couple of devices with access to the codes, and then hopes, prayers and obsolete e-waste in drawers...
Of course, travelling makes the puzzle even harder, and that's when it's often even more important to not get locked out of accounts. I had intended to offer a suggestion to worry less, but instead I'm going to go away and think about this more myself.
I wonder if some areas/countries had better quality phone lines. I'm not doubting you, but I didn't have this experience at all. Could have just been luck - I probably didn't call that many different people.
Of course, this only applied until I tried to make an overseas call - then it sounded like I was calling Mars.
Long distance pretty quickly adopted digital transmission. Unless you made calls in the 70s there's a pretty good chance you were just using digital calls which is why they were so clear.
If you go watch an old TV show with a long distance phone call (Comes up on MASH, for example, and the Twilight zone). You'll see people screaming into the phones. That was a pretty normal way to be heard as whispers simply couldn't be heard. Sending out a really strong vocal signal made it easier to hear that over the noise and pops.
Plenty of long distance circuits remained analog into the 90s, particularly the microwave relay tower networks in rural areas. They used all sorts of techniques to produce rather good results.
As an example, one game phone phreaks in the 70s would play is stacking very long lines back and forth. Route a call across the country, then back, then back again. You could do NY - SF four or five times with a circuit length of like 10,000 miles sometimes before the channel was unusable.
You are otherwise totally right about the potential distortion of a long distance analog circuit. Other times filters would be out of tune and you would hear the hundreds of other analog channels just murmuring in the background not quite discernible, and calling the next town over was almost impossible.
Screaming into the phone was more the pre-electronics era with carbon microphones. The original analog phone systems had no active amplification at all. Voice powered microphones were typical in the military until quite late - I think they still use them as backups on ships.
I also miss reliable decent quality phone calls. I sometimes give up on Facetime/Whatsapp/Signal and switch to standard mobile call, or vice-versa, and I can hear that the calls through apps have much richer sound quality, when it's working. The voices are much less tinny, but the delays, echos and periods with just no connection, don't seem much better than standard mobile calls. And the delays and reliability of both is worse than analogue landline calls used to be.
I suppose that's to be expected moving to wireless tech, but local analogue landline calls used to be so fast that they had lower latency than a conversation across a room. I know we've gained a lot and I wouldn't trade VOIP for going back to only mobile, or giving up both to going back to landline, but it is a shame quality isn't higher.
I agree that this area is more complicated than simple statements will be able to cover, but at first thought I like the idea of some sort of rule for opening up any device that is not being maintained. That when a company decides a device will no longer receive updates, some amount of source code/documentation needs to be released to allow third parties to take over.
I'm doing my best to avoid writing a sarcastic comment about Australia's reputation for putting off troubling about the technical details for digital legislation.
However, I can't resist posting some of the highlights that arose when the Assistance and Access Act passed a few years back:
Asked whether the laws of mathematics behind encryption would trump any new legislation, Mr Turnbull said:
"The laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that." (0)
