We tinkerers often have ideas we know are crazy, and we make them up in the most bizarre places, too. For example, just imagine hosting a website while pedaling across the world—who would (not) want that? Meet [Jelle Reith], a tinkerer on an epic cycling adventure, whose bicycle doubles as a mobile web server. [Jelle]’s project, jelle.bike, will from the 6th of December on showcase what he’s seeing in real time, powered by ingenuity and his hub dynamo. If you read this far, you’ll probably guess: this hack is done by a Dutchman. You couldn’t be more right.
At the heart of [Jelle]’s setup is a Raspberry Pi 4 in a watertight enclosure. The tiny powerhouse runs off energy generated by a Forumslader V3, a clever AC-to-DC converter optimized for bike dynamos. The Pi gets internet access via [Jelle]’s phone hotspot, but hosting a site over cellular networks isn’t as simple as it sounds. With no static IP available, [Jelle] routes web traffic through a VPS using an SSH tunnel. This crafty solution—expanded upon by Jeff Geerling—ensures seamless access to the site, even overcoming IPv6 quirks.
The system’s efficiency and modularity exemplify maker spirit: harnessing everyday tools to achieve the extraordinary. For more details, including a parts list and schematics, check out [Jelle]’s Hackaday.io project page.
I hope the bottom of the page says “It took 2m to serve you this page” instead of the usual render time.
heheh, I like that idea. Though I think I’d instead go for fractions of the riders favourite or most recent meal, with a link to the inevitable ‘buy me a Koffee’ (I think that is how that particular peer funding is spelled) in the middle.
Could probably get around the VPS with Cloudflare Tunnel or Tailscale Funnel. Though practically that is just externalizing the extra server.
Also Cloudflare Tunnel has some aggressive terms about what can be hosted behind it.
I’m assuming “no static IP available” should be “no public IP available” otherwise dynamic DNS could do the job.
That would make more sense. I remember some people in the recent IPv6 article saying at least some cell networks are behind a CGNAT.
Though IIRC some claimed that carriers all have IPv6 support so I wonder if there is a method to use that with DDNS instead.
And I am getting a HTTP504 error message for the IO site. Original.
Reminds me, faintly, of [Steve Roberts] and “Behemoth” – https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/mj43n/a_story_of_a_geek_who_ran_his_freelance_business/
Back in the 1980s… I read about about his exploits off of Usenet during my undergrad days with a mixture of disbelief and jealousy. Forgive the reddit link, but it’ll lead you to more authoritative sources and the comments include some from what is likely The Man himself.
Roberts… that’s the name I was trying to remember. I recall when he was planning to ride across Iowa on RAGBRAI with his Behemoth. He wrote of how relaxing it would be to cycle across the great flat plains of Iowa. I tried to contact him (via Usenet, that’s how far back this was) and explain Iowa is between the two largest rivers in North America, so there’s GOT to be quite a few hills between them. Either my message was lost or ignored, because he went anyway, taking much longer each day to travel the required distance than he had planned. He broke a crank before he made it half-way across the state (only a few miles from my parent’s home) and then threw a fit because the local machine shops had neither the CAD-CAM equipment nor the aircraft-grade titanium to make a new one. He found a shop in Cedar Rapids that could machine the part from the designs he brought with him, but it would be days before they could ship in his required material. (And I heard they wouldn’t do it for free for the promotional value like he wanted.) He would accept no substitutes, even when the shop’s head machinist told him that the grade of titanium he was using wasn’t a good fit for a part that was constantly flexing. He packed up Behemoth onto his support trailer and left, angry that a rural area wouldn’t stock the latest high-tech materials and tools. And to think this was supposedly a test run before taking Behemoth around the world, through third-world countries that would be even less likely to have parts.
I prefer reticulum node with exange personal page.
Nomad Net have this options
The fact that the author was having trouble with IPv6 is unfortunate, because IPv6 can make things easier and more consistent.
When you’re on a cellular networks, you almost certainly aren’t being given a public IPv4 address of your own. Your provider’s CGNAT may expire because you’re moving from tower to tower, because it was idle for sixty seconds, because the NAT router is busy, or just because the connection has lived too long for the NAT router, even if it’s still active.
Many IPv6 networks, even behind a phone’s hotspot, are real IPv6 addresses. Most will still block incoming by default, but as long as the device initiates a connection, IPv6 will work much more consistently than carrier grade NAT. This is the same for Starlink’s networks, too.
If you make your tunnel over IPv6, then it’ll stay alive for much longer by itself. Perhaps it’s worth looking in to the reason that IPv6 isn’t working consistently.
I would just send a zip file nyuk nyuk nyuk