Doc Strange here. I've been a travelling shaman for 30 years. I carry almost nothing. And I've just figured out how to carry a library — a whole community — in a pocket. Let me show you.
Somewhere in your house there's a phone doing nothing. In a drawer. On a shelf. Waiting to become something. You're about to turn it into a FeelFamous node — a walking WiFi library that broadcasts to everyone within range.
No technical knowledge needed. No monthly fees. No platform owns it. Just a phone, a powerbank, and five minutes.
On the old phone, connect to WiFi and download the basecamp zip.
⬇ Download feelfamous-basecamp.zipWhen it downloads, your phone will offer to unzip it. Do that. It'll create a folder called feelfamous-basecamp.
Open your file manager. Find the feelfamous-basecamp folder (usually in Downloads). Move it to Internal Storage and rename it basecamp.
It needs to be at the root of Internal Storage — not buried inside another folder. Internal Storage → basecamp → index.html. That's the structure.
No Play Store, no Google account. Open your browser and go to f-droid.org — a free, open-source app store. Download the F-Droid app itself first, open it, allow the "install unknown apps" prompt once (that's your browser asking permission to install anything at all, totally normal).
Inside F-Droid, search for lWS (lightweight Web Server, by mvbasov). Install it.
Open lWS. Set the document root to Internal Storage → basecamp (type the path or use the folder picker). Leave the port on 8080 — that's already the default. Hit Start.
The app will show you an IP address — something like 192.168.x.x:8080. Write it down or screenshot it. You'll need it in a moment. See The Bare Phone Kit if F-Droid itself is new to you.
Go to Settings → Network → Mobile Hotspot. Turn it on. Tap the name and change it to FeelFamous. No password — leave it open. This is intentional. You want people to connect.
Keep lWS running in the background while the hotspot is on.
On another device connected to your FeelFamous hotspot, open a browser and go to:
http://[your IP]:8080/qr.html
Paste in the full URL: http://[your IP]:8080/index.html
Generate the QR. Save it. That's what people scan to go straight to the basecamp.
The IP can change when you restart. Check the app each time and regenerate the QR if it's different.
Phone in your bag. Powerbank plugged in. Hotspot on. lWS running. That's it.
People nearby see FeelFamous WiFi. They connect. They scan the QR. They arrive here. They become nodes. The fire spreads.
You don't have to do anything. You just have to show up.
Every person who connects can become a node too. Show them this tutorial. Give them the zip. The mycelium spreads. Peer to peer. No servers. No middlemen. No extraction.
App can't see my files — check storage permissions. Go to Settings → Apps → lWS → Permissions and allow full file access, then re-pick the basecamp folder as the document root.
Browser shows a / with no content — go to the full URL: http://[IP]:8080/index.html
IP has changed since last time — check the lWS app for the current IP. Regenerate the QR.
Only see an example page, not the basecamp files — that's lWS's default document root (its own private folder). Go back into lWS's settings and set the document root to Internal Storage → basecamp, then restart the server.
People can't connect — make sure the hotspot is named FeelFamous and has no password.