iPhone 3G as home server?

[biohead]

As the title says... any tips on whether it's remotely possible to use an old iPhone 3G as basically a home server box.

It sounds stupid at first, but the more I think about it the more sense it makes. My needs are low power, minimal attention needed, and silent. It's primary purpose is purely to act as a torrent downloader. It'd be nice to have a very very basic http server too (to host a few files and thats probably it) that I can access from the internet.

I have a 16Gb iphone 3G, where the gsm antenna is damaged but wifi still works. I was previously looking at investing in one of those ARM based Plug PCs, but at around £100 for whats just a toy, I wondered if the 3G would be possible? I figured 16Gb is big enough for my files and the types of torrents I'll be using and then I can simply leave it in the universal dock, unlocked and constantly on. Power consumption must be comparable if not less than a plug pc.

 

[robbieduncan]

Jailbroken might well be possible. Power consumption would certainly be low. Not sure about total WiFi throughput though, might be a bottleneck depending on your Internet connection. My iPhone 4 WiFi only manages 17.76Mbps on my BT Infinity connection. My Mac on the same connection manages 34.16Mbps (with an iPlayer program playing at the same time).

 

[biohead]

Well my home connection maxes out around 4mb, and upload around 512k so can't see it being too much of a problem!

 

[ViViDboarder]

I'm pretty sure it's possible.

Do you just need it to serve HTTP? No PHP or anything? Static HTML?

If so then I'm pretty sure it's possible. I don't have my iPhone with me to check Cydia, but you'll want to jailbreak and look for a webserver app.

Other than that, look for a command line Torrent client that you can set up a daemon for that can download torrents automatically from a drop folder or something.

EDIT: I liked your idea so I did a bit of searching for you...

Lighttpd SBSettings Toggle ( http://modmyi.com/cydia/package.php?id=21508 )

That should about do what you want, assuming you know how to set up your lighttpd config. If not that's very google-able.

EDIT2: You're also going to want a Dynamic DNS daemon. If your router or one of your home computers isn't already set up to do this, try iDNS ( http://modmyi.com/cydia/package.php?id=30091 ) along with a DynDNS.com or No-IP.com account, or download one of their desktop daemons to run on one of your computers. This will let you access the server over the internet by using biohead.dyndns-home.com or something like that instead of remembering your IP and tracking it every time it changes.

 

[biohead]

Thanks very much ViViD, it's given me a bit more confidence knowing it's not a completely stupid idea. I've managed to get the basic server running within my home network, no config done yet nor port forwarding - but looking forward to getting a bit of free time to put some work into it!

 

[stridemat]

I like the sound of this idea. Keep us posted how it works out.

 

[blueroom]

Sell the iPhone 3G
With the money buy a Synology DS11x NAS and almost any SATA HDD

That's how you turn an iPhone 3G into a basic home server (NAS)

 

[biohead]

Sell the iPhone 3G
With the money buy a Synology DS11x NAS and almost any SATA HDD

That's how you turn an iPhone 3G into a basic home server (NAS)

Read the first post. Must be purely silent (no HDD) and absolute minimal power.

 

[ViViDboarder]

Read the first post. Must be purely silent (no HDD) and absolute minimal power.

Yea, I think it's a pretty good idea.

Another cool solution is a DD-WRT supported router. That would pretty much meet your needs but wouldn't be "better" than the iPhone. Just one less device I guess.

 

[biohead]

Funnily enough, I had a go at that earlier in the year after finding out one of my spare routers could run DDWRT. Unfortunately it only has a 4mb flash and no USB support so isn't of much use - although I guess if you don't buy a cheapo router like me it's much more viable!

As an update; I've got the basic HTML server running. For some reason, port forwarding wasn't working on my router but putting it in the DMZ solved that problem temporarily.

 

[ViViDboarder]

Funnily enough, I had a go at that earlier in the year after finding out one of my spare routers could run DDWRT. Unfortunately it only has a 4mb flash and no USB support so isn't of much use - although I guess if you don't buy a cheapo router like me it's much more viable!

As an update; I've got the basic HTML server running. For some reason, port forwarding wasn't working on my router but putting it in the DMZ solved that problem temporarily.

Ah, bummer about DDWRT. I just bought a buffalo router and it's pretty sweet.

As for port forwarding, do you have 80 forwarded elsewhere? Perhaps you have Web Admin enabled for your router for remote administration? That goes on Port 80 some times.

 

[blueroom]

Ok
1. Sell iPhone 3G ~$150
2. Buy Patroit Gear Box NAS & USB stick $75
3. Profit

 

[ViViDboarder]

Ok
1. Sell iPhone 3G ~$150
2. Buy Patroit Gear Box NAS & USB stick $75
3. Profit

Where can I get $150 for my iPhone 3G?

 

[kuebby]

Where can I get $150 for my iPhone 3G?

MacRumors Marketplace

 

[ViViDboarder]

MacRumors Marketplace

Sweeeeet! Thanks.

 

[jimmy83]

Can anyone suggest any uses for an old 3G handset?

 

[blevins321]

Where can I get $150 for my iPhone 3G?

(No I'm not spamming). If you can't find a direct buyer, try here. I sold a friend's Blackberry on there as well as my own 3GS was just sent in. They'll mail you a check.

 

[Inkllicious]

Sell the iPhone 3G
With the money buy a Synology DS11x NAS and almost any SATA HDD

That's how you turn an iPhone 3G into a basic home server (NAS)

Not to mention nobody will buy a dinosaur phone with a broken cell antenna.

 

[blevins321]

Not to mention nobody will buy a dinosaur phone with a broken cell antenna.

Ah, good point. I didn't think about the cell antenna. People would still pay $125+ for the phone, but much less with the busted antenna.

 

[biohead]

I played around a lot and it certainly was possible. ctorrent is a bit useless, but I'm sure if the effort was put in it would be possible to setup something like torrentflux too and make it look all pretty. The killer though is the slow transfer speeds from iphone to hard drive when the download is complete.

In the end I opted for a lovely bright pink pogoplug, and use a few plugapps on there instead.