Learn how to run your own mobile site from your Nseries device and more with Mobile Web Server.

The Mobile Web Server team at Nokia has created a web server application that runs on your mobile device, which means the information that is “served” back to site users is data that resides in your device itself, like your photos or text messages. Not only that, Mobile Web Server can be configured to make your device perform certain actions based on a request.

What can I do with it?

Mobile Web Server enables you to do just about everything you’d expect from a web server:

- Create your own mobile web pages
- Create blogs on your web pages using a mobile device or a computer (via a web browser)
- Chat with web users who visit your mobile site
- Share media through your mobile device
- Share your mobile device calendar
- Share your presence information

In other words, web users will be able to access your mobile content on the internet through your mobile site. For an example of this, visit http://demo.mymobilesite.net

How do I get started?

There are four steps we’ll go through to set up Mobile Web Server: register for an account, download and install the application, configure the application and start the server.

Register for an account

To register your Mobile Web Server account, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Mobile Web Server Portal at http://mymobilesite.net

2. Click Register, fill in the registration form, accept the service terms and click Submit registration.

Note: Pick your user name carefully. The user name becomes the first part of your mobile site name (as in http://sitename.mymobilesite.net) and you cannot change the user name and site name after the registration.

3. You will receive a registration confirmation email message to your email address after you fill out the form. Click the link in the message or copy it to your web browser to activate the registration.

Download and install the application

The application software is distributed as a SIS file. To download the file, you can use your mobile browser, or you can download the software to your computer and then sideload it to your phone via Bluetooth or the USB cable that came with your device. If you use your mobile browser, the installation starts automatically, so let’s do it that way.

Open your mobile browser and enter the following web address:

http://download.mymobilesite.net

You’ll receive a few prompts before finishing the installation.

1. Select Yes at the “Install Web Server?” prompt.

2. Select where to install the application, device memory or memory card.

3. When the phone displays notifications regarding the installation, select Continue.

4. Accept the end user software agreement by selecting OK. You will see a progress bar indicating the installation status.

Configure the application

When the installation is complete, the installer closes automatically and the Web Server starts for the first time. To help you complete the installation, the application runs a wizard where you must define a few settings:

Login name - Enter the user name that you picked during the registration.

Password - Enter the password that you defined during the registration.

Server Access Policy - Decide if you want to allow public access to your mobile site. To allow public access to your mobile site, select Options > Select.

To customize the appearance of your mobile web site - Select Options > Select > Open front page.

Internet Access Point (IAP) setting - Your phone must be connected to the internet in order to work. In this setting you select the connection that the phone will use. For those of you with 3G unlimited plans, use that connection. If you don’t have a 3G plan, but have a wi-fi enabled phone, select a wi-fi access point - it’s faster and cheaper.

Start the server

You can start your mobile web server either by connecting to the internet, or by using it locally without connecting to the Mobile Web Server Gateway. If you connect to the internet, web users can browse to your mobile site; if you start the web server locally, web users will not have access to your mobile site. Web users cannot access any content on your site before you have granted access rights to them.

To start the server, select Menu > My own > Web Server > Options > Start server and from the following:

1. If you are connecting to the internet, select an internet access point.

2. If you are connecting locally, to establish a network connection, select Yes and an internet access point.

3. If you have changed the default connection type setting to Always ask, select the connection type (Internet or Local). To establish a network connection, select “Yes” and an internet access point.

(Note: Keeping the web server running - and allowing web users to access it - causes data traffic to your mobile device through your service provider’s network. Contact your service provider for information about data transmission charges or use your phone’s wi-fi connection.)

When the Web Server is started, the connection information text is changed to “Running” or “Running locally” depending on the selected connection type. If you start the Web Server locally and you want to access your home page, select Options > View in browser or enter the address http://127.0.0.1 in your device browser. If the server wasn’t started locally, you can view your site from any computer’s browser by going to http://username.mymobilesite.net (insert your own user name, of course).

To stop the server, go to Options > Stop server. The server is stopped and whatever network connection you used to run the server will be disconnected.

What’s next?

We’ve covered a lot in this installment! Your mobile web server is installed and running on your phone. In the next installment we’ll finish the configuration and explore the Mobile Web Server gateway. I’ll even show you a few exciting things you can do with your new mobile site.

See you in Part 2!

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