How to Host a Website Using a Phone (KSWEB + UserLand + Cloudflare tunnel)

Summary

The presenter demonstrates how to host a website from an Android phone using KSWEB as the local web server and UserLAnd to run Cloudflare’s tunneling service.

KSWEB setup

KSWEB provides Lighttpd, PHP, and MySQL for running web applications. Website files are placed in the htdocs folder, and the local site is tested on port 804. The presenter describes Lighttpd as a lighter alternative to Apache.

Example web app

The demonstration features a QR-code attendance app that scans codes with the camera and records attendance. The presenter notes that its PHP-based login and server-side processing work correctly.

Making the site public

UserLAnd is used to run cloudflared, which exposes the phone’s local server through Cloudflare. A domain and subdomain provide access to the site over HTTPS.

Security caveat

The presenter says the connection between visitors and Cloudflare is encrypted, but the current setup is not end-to-end encrypted. Stronger encryption may be possible, but it is not demonstrated.

Tutorial scope

The video shows the working result but skips the UserLAnd and Cloudflare configuration, describing the setup as somewhat complicated and suggesting it may be covered in a future video.

Main speaker/source

• COMPSHOP101 presenter — explains the setup and demonstrates the QR-code attendance app.