Using the Pyra as a web server and phone simultaneously

[henri]

Hello everyone,
I apologize if my questions are naive - I'm new here, stuck at home in the U.S., but with an excellent connection and Verizon unlimited plan.
My idea is to use the Pyra as a web server (probably using Apache) - to have more control and not advertise for WordPress, Wix, etc.
Before you say this is crazy, I realize that if my website becomes popular (fingers-crossed) I may need to pay for hosting, but at least I'd like to try (it'd be cool, don't you think?).
My preference is a laptop, or at least a tablet, since I want only 1 device and seldom make phone calls, but I don't think one exists with regular voice (not VoIP) capability.
I was interested in the PinePhone, much cheaper and with 5 kill switches that I don't think the Pyra has, but it seems like it can't be used as a daily driver yet.
So my question is: will the Pyra with LTE cellular modem maintain a constant connection 24/365 using Verizon in the U.S., and will making phone calls cause a problem for Apache?
Finally, I don't need gaming capability - if anyone knows of some other device more suited to what I want to do, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[lukey]

There is a software-controllable (from the open-source side) kill-switch for the (closed-source) modem. AFAIK, the modem falls back to 2G for voice.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

There's the Librem 5 which you could look into but I do not know how they're currently doing.

 

[elw3]

Are you actually sure that you plan even includes an IP address?
Having IPs in a mobile network is, at least in my part of the world, either not existing or ultra expensive for a common customer to get.

 

[EvilDragon]

I would suggest using nginx, as Apache is pretty power hungry.

 

[docbroke]

Are you actually sure that you plan even includes an IP address?
Having IPs in a mobile network is, at least in my part of the world, either not existing or ultra expensive for a common customer to get.

He may use DDNS, I have done that with my router running dd-wrt. ( I guess you mean fixed IP address)

AFAIR, Pyra modem will shift to 2G or 3G connection during call, which will make webserver difficult to access due to slow speed.

 

[stevenc99]

There are definitely a lot of people interested in running decentralized/federated services like blogs, chat, email, OwnCloud on their own hardware.

If your cell plan doesn't include an IPv4 address (most don't), then you may need to rent one somehow and set up a VPN tunnel so that the connections to that IP address are routed back to the Pyra.
If you're lucky, you might get a public IPv6 address from the cell provider.
Alternatively, if you run the Tor client on the Pyra and enable a .onion service, you can make your website available that way instead.

Then there are some websites that act as a gateway for non-Tor-users to access .onion services; and for IPv4-only-users to be able to access to IPv6-only sites.

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

You could also buy 2 Pyrii and then use 1 as a server and the other as a phone.

Post automatically merged: Jan 4, 2021

Alternatively, if you run the Tor client on the Pyra and enable a .onion service, you can make your website available that way instead.

There are many alternative networks. Freenet is a good one as well. But .onion sites are cool too and probably the most well-known. With namecoin you might even change them into .bit sites, though I'm not sure how that works yet.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

The Pyra won't work on Verizon as I understand it, because Verizon made the poor choice to not support cellular standards. So you'd have to switch to AT&T or somesuch.

 

[TrashyMG]

The Pyra won't work on Verizon as I understand it, because Verizon made the poor choice to not support cellular standards. So you'd have to switch to AT&T or somesuch.

I've come to that conclusion when searching how to add another device.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Honestly the US is garbage for phones. You can't even have a second SIM with the same number because they made SIM cloning illegal, and didn't add an exception to allow the carriers themselves to do it.

 

[Phlyra]

Honestly the US is garbage for phones. You can't even have a second SIM with the same number because they made SIM cloning illegal, and didn't add an exception to allow the carriers themselves to do it.

Isn’t SIM cloning how some ID thieves get around 2FA?

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Isn’t SIM cloning how some ID thieves get around 2FA?

Possibly. But the phone company themselves should be allowed to do it.

 

[Legodude522]

My website is hosted on a cheap Lenovo micro-PC running Linux using a wifi connection. The LAN driver wasn't working under Linux out of the box but the WLAN works perfectly and apparantly it's more than capable for the loads it's under. I'm using the Pandora (and hopefully soon the Pyra) to help manage the server. It's pretty easy to just SSH in and do everything remotely.

 

[levi]

If you are using your pyra as a phone and a web server simultaneously, and you sometimes go outside of wifi range, let us know your mobile IP address. I'm sure some of us would be happy to use it heavily so that your mobile charges go crazy

 

[elw3]

He may use DDNS, I have done that with my router running dd-wrt. ( I guess you mean fixed IP address)

No, Public IP.
Mobile devices are usually behind a NAT, meaning you get the IP of the cell tower and share that with others.
All incoming connections are usually blocked.

 

[henri]

My website is hosted on a cheap Lenovo micro-PC running Linux using a wifi connection. The LAN driver wasn't working under Linux out of the box but the WLAN works perfectly and apparantly it's more than capable for the loads it's under. I'm using the Pandora (and hopefully soon the Pyra) to help manage the server. It's pretty easy to just SSH in and do everything remotely.

I originally tried using a computer connected via WiFi (hotspot) to my phone. But after some time the connection always drops. Obviously, you need a persistent connection to maintain a web server. How do you manage to avoid this problem? And a few of the above posts mention that carriers don't assign static IP's and/or don't allow incoming connections. How did you solve that - did you do some workaround - maybe in the DDNS records? BTW, since the Pyra isn't "officially supported" by Verizon, could I just take out the Sim card of my current phone (iPhone) and put it in the Pyra, or would I need to do something with the IMEI and IMSI (?), which I believe are only used for billing purposes, but how do you do that?

 

[levi]

The IMSI is used to identify you and bill you for calls, but the IMEI is only really used to block stolen communication devices. Therefore ways to change that are rarely discussed in the open, and I don't know if you can even change the IMSI.

 

[henri]

There are definitely a lot of people interested in running decentralized/federated services like blogs, chat, email, OwnCloud on their own hardware.

If your cell plan doesn't include an IPv4 address (most don't), then you may need to rent one somehow and set up a VPN tunnel so that the connections to that IP address are routed back to the Pyra.
If you're lucky, you might get a public IPv6 address from the cell provider.
Alternatively, if you run the Tor client on the Pyra and enable a .onion service, you can make your website available that way instead.

Then there are some websites that act as a gateway for non-Tor-users to access .onion services; and for IPv4-only-users to be able to access to IPv6-only sites.

Thanks so much for the information. Is there any way you could elaborate a little on these different options and how I would actually go about implementing them? If that's too much of a bother, maybe you could point me to some tutorials?

Cheers