Sunday, 25 August 2013
Whether you have a $50 mini PC that you leave plugged in all the time or a 5-inch smartphone that you carry with you, you can use any Android device as a full fledged web server that’s accessible either on LAN or from anywhere on the Internet. With an Android web server, developers can easily test their code without paying for a hosting service. Freelancers can carry a copy of the web tools they’ve built with them to show their clients. Home and small office users can even set up custom web tools for users on the local network.
Here’s how to set up a web server on your Android phone, tablet or mini PC.
Install the Web Server
1. Install and launch KSWEB on your Android device. The app only has a six-day free trial, after which it costs $2.99. There are a number of other web server apps, including Bit Web ($2.39) andServers Ultimate, but we chose KSWEB for this tutorial because it is one of the simpler options.
2. Navigate to the IP address listed by KSWEB in your computer’s browser or to localhost:8080 on the device itself.
3. Click the link for KSWeb Interface and enter the default username and password (admin and admin).
4. Select System settings and change the default password from “admin” to something else.
5. Select KSWEB settings, enter a MySQL shell password and hit save. You can stick with the default, blank password but it is unadvisable to have a blank password, even if your server isn’t connected to the Internet.
6. Select a root directory for your site by tapping Document Root in the KSWEB app’s settings menu and entering the appropriate file path. You may wish to keep the default directory (/mnt/sdcard/htdocs), but we recommend that you save space by putting the folder on a microSD card, if your Android device has one.
You can now visit your site by navigating to localhost:8080 on the Android device or by navigating to the IP address displayed by KSWeb. However, at this point, you will only see KSWEB’s default home page and you will only be able to access it from within the local network.
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