
Ask HN: Why aren't phones being used as local private servers? - azeirah
Phones nowaday have the processing power to do any kind of private server work.<p>A private server phone is similar to a home-server, as it can be used as a media server, file host, file share, git server, web server (acting as an interface to any of the other utilities).<p>It can even serve as a configuration server, as many people are struggling with keeping their program configurations the same between several OS&#x27;es and or devices.<p>I can imagine that people don&#x27;t want to do it because of battery issues, or that most people aren&#x27;t even aware that you can use your phone as a local server.
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crazybob
I used an old Android phone for my garage door server:
[https://plus.google.com/+BobLee/posts/7LyfdV3PC5X](https://plus.google.com/+BobLee/posts/7LyfdV3PC5X)

It runs the Jetty web server. When I was the core library lead for the Android
platform ('06-'09), we ran Jetty's test suite as part of Android's acceptance
tests, so it works great!

Why don't people use phones as servers more often? They're overkill when you
can get a Raspberry Pi for ~$50. You typically don't need an LCD, touch
screen, accelerometer, cell radio, etc. for a home server.

Also, Android runs a heavily stripped down version of Linux, so running off-
the-shelf server software can be tricky.

~~~
ja27
But you can get a low-spec Jelly Bean phone for $20, with charger, wifi,
bluetooth, camera, and battery. I love my Raspberry Pi's (and PogoPlugs) but
cheap Android phones are pretty attractive devices too, especially ones that
can be rooted without much trouble.

[http://www.bestbuy.com/site/net10-zte-whirl-2-no-contract-
ce...](http://www.bestbuy.com/site/net10-zte-whirl-2-no-contract-cell-phone-
black/8728026.p?id=1219362861847&skuId=8728026&productCategoryId=)

~~~
crazybob
That's news to me. Very cool!

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Redoubts
I would if I had an Ubuntu Edge

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edge)

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MrDom
The reason I don't is battery life. Running a server of any kind kills my
phone in record time. I could leave it plugged in, but then it becomes a very
expensive and underpowered server. I prefer to use old laptops because the
cost/power ratio is more favorable (and those old IBM thinkpads are like the
energizer bunny. they keep going and going...)

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anywherenotes
I have a related question.

If I get into a car (especially one loaned for a day), shouldn't I be able to
connect to the car with Bluetooth, and then have car settings for at least the
radio come up on the phone? So for example if I want button1 to be station
123, all I'd have to do is sync those settings against phone.

I guess the question is, if I have a smart phone, why do I still need to use
car-interface to set up buttons for radio? Why can't there be apps that
remember settings and update them automatically. With such apps, you could
configure your car to play kid-friendly radio when you drive kids to school,
and your favorite channel on your way to work. You wouldn't have issues
switching between your and spouse's car (different settings, and maybe they
reset radio or dealer changed battery and reset radio).

(or maybe this is all available on better cars than I own)

~~~
rco8786
This would require the phone/app to know and be able to reconcile all the
different configuration and communication schemas for all the different
makes/models of cars AND for the cars themselves to publish what amounts to an
API to allow for this sort of interaction.

Nobody wants to do that sort of work on the phone side, and the car
manufacturers really have no incentive to provide an API especially since they
use their interfaces as selling points (BMW's iDrive, Tesla's 60" screen,
etc).

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matt_heimer
* Storage space/attachment is an issue

* Local lan speed sucks - some phones still only have 2.4Ghz 802.11n

* Cost is an issue - If I have a spare phone sitting around I'd probably be better off selling it and buying a small ARM board with ethernet that I can run Linux on and a USB drive.

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ZenoArrow
Well, you can certainly get web servers running on Android (I've used Bit Web
Server before, and there are free alternatives...
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andi.serve...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andi.serverweb&hl=en)
). The only question is whether you'd be able to install something like
OwnCloud on it...
[https://owncloud.org/install/](https://owncloud.org/install/)

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kbcool
I would say storage space is still the issue. Most phones still come with 8/16
gigs where as on PCs a terabyte or more is common.

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lacoolj
Branching on this, why not an app to enable a Tor server only when wifi is
available? And for those scared to allow it on their own network, allow the
user to disable it on a certain SSID or somethin.

~~~
zaroth
I don't know if hidden services behave better if they are actually jumping
around between different access networks, or if they can actually hide more
safely by staying at a single point (single set of guards). That would be
something you would want to know before trying this :-)

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J_Darnley
Because that would be you exercising the freedom to use your phones as you
wish rather than being locked into the walled garden by the OS manufacturer.

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lkedem
My phone is my media server. It has a light webserver with streaming and when
I'm home this is how I listen to music or watch shows.

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ycmk
It's only a matter of time before somebody does it, but at the moment I can't
get the damn LXC working on Android :)

