What is it?

The WebStick is a USB stick form factor web server that provide limited features similar to Apache / Nginx web server, including serving static HTML pages with JS, CSS and more, directory listing, file upload / download, cookie based login system and file streaming (web stream-able files only, e.g. mp3 / webm)

Please let me know if you are buying for (STEM / ICT) education purpose. I can give you discounts if you order them in bulk for your students!

Technical Specification

Programming Notes

The firmware in the ESP12F is designed to load all the configuration from the SD card. In generally conditions, you do not need to change anything in the ESP12F to use it as a web server or poor man NAS. Here are some file paths in the SD card that is related to all the configurable items in the ESP12F

• /cfg/wifi.txt (The wifi SSID and password settings)
• /cfg/admin.txt (Admin account username and password)
• /cfg/mdns.txt (mDNS setting, so you can connect via something like http://webstick.local. in your LAN)

Why did you make it?

As a full stack developer with friends in the STEM education field, many people ask me how to setup their own website for free but picky about vendor lock-in or limited features. That is why I developed the webstick so they can trying out the happiness of self-hosting (without the needs to know how to use Linux and spending too much money on an ARM SBC like the Raspberry Pi) and let their students figure out how web server and networking works.

What makes it special?

I have developed and open source a web system for the webstick in which when used together with a 512MB (or larger) SD card, it can act as a poor man NAS that support a lot of features that you would typically only find on NAS like

• Build in static web server (serve all web supported files like html, js and css)
• Cookie based login portal (many of the project out there only support basic auth)
• File Manager (Support upload, download, open, cut / copy files and more)
• Music Player (Stream mp3 files directly from your webstick at home!)
• Video Player (Stream small webm files < 5MB, not that practical but good for a small video for your homepage)
• Photo Viewer (Support most of the web supported file format like jpeg, png and gif)
• Markdown Editor (if you are that kind of personal that jot notes with your browser)
• Coding Text Editor (A multi-tab code / text editor so you can edit your html files on the webstick directly via web UI)

Buyer Notes

• If you pick the ship with SD card option, you can provide your home WiFi SSID and password in the comment section when purchase. If the WiFi credential is not provided, the wifi info will be left to default and you will need a SD card reader to modify the wifi.txt to makes it connect to your home WiFi network.