Sharing Hype documents without WIFI or Internet using an Ad Hoc Network

Tips & Tricks
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Here's how to share a Hype document with any number of devices without Internet access. All you'll need is a Mac with WIFI. (This is if you don't want to temporarily test using Hype Reflect)

It is also a useful method for sharing large files in a classroom environment (like a large Epub or iBook) with multiple students to bypass slow local internet.

We're going to create a wireless network, run a server on our computer, and then have others connect to our server.

Create an Ad Hoc Network

We'll first create an Ad Hoc wireless network. This is going to be a wireless network that your Mac will broadcast. Any devices that join this network can load content from your computer if you create a server and listen for those requests.

Click the Wifi icon at the top menu bar, and select 'Create Network...'

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Choose a network name that is easy to type:

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Now let's create a server so that if anyone joins your wifi network and visits your machines address, they will be able to load HTML content from you machine.

Create a Server

Let's assume you want to make a folder called document on your desktop available (Located in ~/Desktop/document)
Open Terminal, and paste this command:

What this does is changes to your Desktop/document folder (inside of your user directory). Opens the page where your server will be loaded in your default browser, and then starts a server. You'll need to refresh your browser to see what is being served. SimpleHTTPServer is built into all Macs because it comes with Python.

Discover your Machine's .local address

Now that you have a server running, you need to know how to share the URL of that page with others. Visit the 'Sharing' settings in System Preferences, and make a note of your computer name. For me, it is 88lappy. If your computer name has spaces in it or is hard to type, change it to something shorter.

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So the URL I want to share with others, is http://88lappy.local

Once they join my ad hoc network and visit the http://88lappy.local URL, they'll see the contents of my document folder on my desktop and can load anything from there.

Sharing your Server:

To create a scannable QR code for others to quickly load your new host, unzip this folder into your directory and load index.html
qr.zip (57.9 KB)

This is a very simple QR code generator that others can point their phone cameras at to quickly join your new server:

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On aside,
You can also do this to use Hype Reflect if you do not have a cable or if either you have no wifi or the wifi will not allow the connection.

Create an Ad Hoc Network as above.

Then on you Mobile/iPad , Open the wifi settings and choose the Ad Hoc Network.
Open Hype reflect and you can then push to it from Hype.

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Note that Apple has removed the Create Network… option by default, but you can bring it back via:

  1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Network.
  2. In the service list on the left, select Wi-Fi, then click Advanced.
  3. Select the “Show legacy networks and options” checkbox.
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Here are the basic steps to do so on the iOS device:

  1. Open the Settings App
  2. Click Wi-Fi
  3. Scroll down towards the bottom, there should at some point be a new section that shows "Devices" and click on the wifi network to connect
  4. Click Join Anyways if it says this network is not connected to the internet
  5. At this point it will look half connected; there will be a spinner and it won't show wi-fi in your status bar. This is okay, you can now use Reflect at this point.
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