Turn any smartphone into an offline Internet-In-A-Box Digital Library

[Daley]

Is anyone familiar with Kiwix? Did you know that you could turn some of your smartphone's unused space or dedicate a microSD card stuffed into it into your own little Internet Archive? Better still, dust off an old smartphone that's not being used due to a damaged screen, or a dying battery, and use it as a dedicated little Internet-In-A-Box and help host a digital branch of the modern Library of Alexandria on its own. Don't smash that smartphone, repurpose it!

Right now, microSD cards are insanely cheap, $80 gets you a 1TB card from SanDisk or Samsung, 128GB can be had for as little as $13!

In a world growing more unsure due to accelerated climate change and extreme weather events, and threats of war, and attacks on infrastructure, what better way to help your community out by helping provide an offline chunk of the Internet and the vast resources it holds?

The entirety of the last Wikipedia English ZIM archive for Kiwix from 2024 is only 102.3GiB, and that is with photos (a full archive from 2018 is still available along with other versions through Internet Archive that's only 77.2GiB). Alternately, there's a more curated version of Wikipedia optimized for education that only weighs in at 1.3GiB with photos along with specialty breakout chunks (medical, sciences, history, technology, sports, best 50k articles, etc) that each come in well under 10GiB. There's also ZIM archives of all the other Wikimedia resources, various other specialty wikis, Khan Academy, archives of every StackExchange, iFixit, prepper/offgrid resources, TED Talk libraries, specialty medical resources ranging from emergency to general care, educational and technological resources, and Project Gutenberg in a variety of languages... a majority of some of the most useful hubs of information from the Internet, condensed down into a single file for these websites, and as easy to host and make available through a hotspot on your phone for others to use as opening up an app and turning on the webserver.

Kiwix even has a recommendation of curated bundles that you could potentially put together if you don't know what to get specifically just by looking over what bundles they sell for a plug-and-go Raspberry Pi IIAB setup.

Needless to say, getting started is a really low and easy bar, and nearly anyone can at least host some Kiwix ZIM archives, and carry around a few useful PDF books to share!


Additionally, decentralized communications and file sharing apps will be useful as well in similar situations. (Apologies in advance, this is mostly Android focused and some of these apps don't have iPhone versions. It's harder to come up with many suggestions when you don't have an Apple device to test stuff with, and there are even fewer projects of these sorts that provide for both.)

-LocalSend is one of the easiest ways to file share on the same WiFi network across every platform.
-Briar doesn't require internet access to create an account, and can do both WiFi and Bluetooth mesh networking.
-Meshenger can make voice and video calls over non-AP isolated WiFi networks.
-Sideband is more of a public decentralized communications network that can manage low bandwidth situations.
-QField is an offline map app that lets you download and share GeoPDF (regular PDF files that anyone can open and print that also has map data and GPS location embedded for auto-alignment) and GeoSense files from your local governments, the USGS and USDOT, or private organizations for completely offline maps that don't require internet access to share or download maps for others who might not be as prepared, and even lets you make and edit maps on the fly that can be shared with others.
-TrailSense is also an immensely useful map and navigation app that allows you to create maps from photos.

These are good apps to have, and to share with others, and to have copies of to share with others if you lose the internet (most can be downloaded off of F-Droid or from the project's GitHub page).

Further, if you're more technically skilled and have idle Android hardware available, I want to bring to your attention a sub-$10 Android app called Servers Ultimate Pro (that's also available through Amazon's App Store, so Prime members can technically get it free with enough digital credits for slow delivery) that offers upwards of 80 different types of servers that you can run on your phone from simple NTP time servers, to FTP, web, PHP, MySQL, Nginx, Icecast, XMPP, SMB, UPnP/DLNA... which really opens up some unique potential uses for those phones to give them a second life!

As for sourcing other useful digital books, Rice University has their OpenStax textbooks available for free to download. Internet Archive has a lot of curated book bundles, too.

If you're looking to carry some entertainment, the Old Time Radio Researchers has a massive library of old radio shows to choose from. Wikipedia has a list and links to download the assortment of public domain films and animated shorts.


If you want to dive down the rabbit hole further on the whole Internet In A Box concept, start here.

Anyway, here's my challenge to you - make your current or old smartphones even more useful, not just for yourself, but for your community. Install decentralized communications and local network file sharing apps, and download some of these APK files to keep handy to share with others if anything happens. Help archive chunks of the internet that could be useful in situations where internet access might become challenging. You don't have to host and have a hotspot going all the time (unless you want to), just have the data available and placed in ways where you can help provide it for others. It's a lot easier to get started than you think.

Use it as a little digital community library! A part of your Bug Out Bag! A node for a (rural) community network! The sky and your imagination is the limit!

If anyone else has any useful suggestions, add it to the list! Even if it's just as small as a book recommendation, like The Bread Code's Sourdough Framework book, which is published under a CC-BY-SA-4.0 license. (Just, no copyrighted stuff.) Otherwise, I want to encourage you all to ask questions, talk about your own setups, and encourage others to get on board!

I'll start: I'm currently using an old LG G3 running LOS 18.1 with a 512GB microSD card. My primary focus is education and medical, with a secondary minor focus on SHTF resources, and some limited entertainment. I'm hosting the 2018 and 2024 full versions of Wikipedia, all the other key Wikimedia websites, the medical resources, many of the more useful prep resources, a lot of relevant StackExchange, and Khan Academy.  I'm additionally providing an NTP server and a PHP server running Tiny File Manager to enable others the ability to download my copies of the ZIM files, other assorted apps, my archive of local GeoPDF maps, and a library of curated PDF books, an assortment of radio shows and films from the public domain archives, and some free homebrew game ROMs. Between the SD card and the internal memory, I've got around 490GiB of usable storage, which with some selective curating, is a lot.

[cerat0n1a]

Interesting post, thank you.

[Daley]

Practical Considerations:

As with all things in life, there are some practical considerations to consider before jumping all in on the idea.

1) Digital storage rules of thumb should not be ignored. Do not stuff to the gills actively used storage (actively being written to), as it will actively shorten the lifespan of the device/storage significantly through rapid wear. Otherwise, internal storage on an actively used phone? Figuring an average of around 32-128GB of internal storage per phone, it would be recommended to at least leave a good ~15+% of that internal storage open for firmware updates and for other apps, so around 5-20GB or more, with more room left on smaller devices. Similar can be said of actively used SD cards. If you're effectively using an SD card just to store the data for access, you can stuff it full with a bit more confidence as read-only. Be generous and kind to your devices, you're using them as an impromptu archive of human knowledge - better to carry less and ensure device reliability than carry more only to kill your phone/storage before you even get the chance to use it.

2) Use a fresh, dedicated, high quality SD card if possible, especially on active devices. If you're going to host any archives over 1GB in size, download and write the largest files first to minimize file fragmentation (i.e.: if you're hosting Wikipedia All Maxi at around 100GB and a bunch of smaller StackExchanges each under 1GB, download and save to storage the Wikipedia ZIM file before anything else). File fragmentation is a lesser concern with solid state media, but it still helps keep things running and accessing as efficiently and minimally invasive as possible. Ideally, get the sort of storage media that's specifically designed for dashcam or security camera usage to ensure longer term survivability, such as Samsung Pro Endurance or SanDisk Max Endurance... otherwise, at least shell out for known reliable brands like Samsung and SanDisk and stay away from the cheap no-name/zombie-name stuff, like Viofo and Lexar.

3) Kiwix as a web app does not and can not just automagically run as a web server hosting your ZIM files all the time. You have to deliberately enable it. Likewise with Servers Ultimate. After all, phone's aren't designed to be servers. We're subverting the tech, so to speak. By making these things more deliberate acts to enable and share, it helps offset and mitigate the risk of running a "public" facing server, even in more limited capacities.

4) There is a non-zero chance of a--holes being a--holes and trying to exploit security holes and compromise your phone if you run it as a public and open server. This is just reality. However, if you limit usage to more emergency-related situations and do semi-private hotspotting or WiFi networks that aren't fully open, that does limit the risk dramatically. If the blackhats are in the same scrapping to survive situation as you and your phone, they're hopefully going to be too busy doing other things than poke, prod and exploit someone running an info server on a dark (read offline/non-internet connected) private network set up for help/disaster response and offline communication. That doesn't mean that other devices unwittingly infected with malware might not still try in an automated sense, but then we're getting into the territory of device and platform version specific exploits... targeted in the weeds sort of stuff. All the same, unless you're able to hide the device behind a firewall that keeps all ports and protocols closed except for the specific ports needed to access Kiwix (and any other servers and services you might be running - but those venturing into Servers Ultimate territory probably already understand this). All the same, having an actively supported phone with security updates available when using this sort of thing isn't a bad idea if you're concerned about the risks of hosting and accessing open networks, even if private and offline.

5) If you're using a dedicated older phone that may not be receiving security updates anymore as a dedicated server? Poke out the eyes and ears of the device if possible, unless you plan on using it for personal communications as well. If you have the ability to disable the cameras and microphones in the OS, do so. If nothing else, consider putting electrical tape over the cameras and closed cell foam tape the microphone holes to help muffle sounds. This is kind of an extreme response, but it's an idea to keep in mind that the device is no longer receiving security updates, so best to help minimize the risk of remote access to those phone peripherals as best as possible. This said, I'm hesitant to recommend a permanent alteration of the hardware to damage/destroy the cameras and microphones, as you never know what might happen, and it's one more device in a situation that might also be used for remote communication and navigation.

6) Be considerate and aware of power usage and prepare accordingly. Consider grabbing a couple of those cheaper 5V 6W USB portable solar panels off of Amazon to keep with a Go Bag, along with one of those cheaper 20,000+mAh USB power banks with the solar panel integrated. This allows for the ability to keep devices working even in limited capacity, so to speak, in rougher situations. Additionally, with dedicated offline phones and phones being used in situations where there is no cellular network access? Go ahead and disable the cellular network radio in settings to help conserve power. If GPS isn't needed at the time, disable location services as well. Basically, turn off all the radio stuff except for WiFi and Bluetooth.

7) Finally, as with all tools... have the apps installed and available now, and know how to use and practice using and deploying everything. As a digital torch bearer of sorts, learning how to use this stuff on the fly while in the middle of needing it is not the ideal time to do so. So, practice! Then, you can help others learn on the fly if needed.