OK, So I’m working on this weird and useless project at the moment. It’s useless cause for the effort I put in it will most likely get very little use, however it’s all about the journey, and not the result. So what I’m going to explain here is the outline of the project, and then ramble on about my thoughts for moving forward with it.

The Great Roadtrip Server

The Van when I first bought it back in January 2007. The Roof racks and tube have since been removed.

Intro: Take one Misubishi Express Van, add a computer and a wireless hotspot access point, viola! You have the Great Roadtrip Server project. Only limited by imagination… and well.. what bits can be gotten cheap or scrounged.

Aim: To create a mobile travelling wireless hotspot server that provides information and entertainment to passengers with Laptops within the hotspot area (ie; travellers going in the same direction.). The server will act as a wifi hotspot, allowing anyone to connect to it, but imediately taking them to portal page which will inform them that there isn’t actually any internet access as such and everything they are viewing is on the server.

They will be able to connect to other users of the server to chat, both through a text chat room, and via teamspeak or ventrillo. The server will also cache a few more popular websites, and if possible mirror some of the online Java games websites for entertainment, hopefully providing a well rounded selection of information and entertainment for all ages.

I may look into future possibilities of connecting it to the web via a 3G modem so that it can keep certain information up to date, most likely this information will be added to the portal via RSS and cached. It will also have a live blog containing some text and photo’s that will either be updated when the server is in contact with it’s home syncing station, or via the aforementioned 3G modem.

The Ramblings…

So, that’s the project in a nutshell. Currently the plan is to install DD-WRT on a Linksys WRT platform as the Access point and use a Mac Mini or other hardware as the server. Originally I was just looking at using some sort of PC as the hardware and attempting to configure it as an access point, however utilising DD-WRT allows me to do some fancy stuff, as well as the ability to keep each client computer separate (Which was a possible security issue, as it opens up the possibility of client to client hacks).

This will be a whole system, as included in the installation will be a home syncing station/server that will have a local copy of the setup and the webpages. When the Vehicle server can access this home station it will attempt to pull everything across. This hopefully will limit the amount of work that needs to be done on the Vehicle server itself.

Power is my main consern, as I would like to be able to keep the server running for as long as possible without external power needed. This means that I need to look into one of two options that I can think of.

1. Finding the most power conservative hardware platforms for both access point and server.
2. Working out a solution that provides some services at minimal power cost during downtime. This could be by having the actual server shut down, but have a holding/portal page that indicates the status, and the ability to remotely restart the server. Once again the Mac Mini is looking good for this.

I’m thinking Option 2 is the most beneficial, as it allows a fairly powerful server to be used when power isn’t too much of an issue, but also provides

Stages of development

So my first issue is committing some hardware to the project. I am a little reluctant to use the Mac mini as I have grown quite fond of using it as a workstation, however it IS actually the hardware that was originally purchased for the job. I have a bid in on a Linksys router which will become the DD-WRT access point.

I would love some suggestions of means of caching websites so that when the server can connect to the home syncing station and retrieve updates. I would also love suggestions on any possible software that might help with the setup and management of this system.

The idea with doing this project isn’t so much to provide the service, but more to learn how and the journey to completing it.