by Campbell Smythe | Apr 26, 2015 | BibleBox
The BibleBox is being used by MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) in kits they place with isolated communities across Arnhem Land north Australia.
DVDs, CDs, Bibles and the electronic wifi BibleBox are gathered into one plastic toolbox and sent to isolated communities such as Numbulwar, Gurrumurru and Bremmer. These Bible kits provide opportunities for local people to purchase gospel material or download free digital resources and and access a wifi Bible from the BibleBox, on a wifi enabled device such as a phone, tablet or laptop.
TP Link WR842ND wifi router sharing wifi Bible and resources
MAF Technology Services has also setup a wifi router (above) at the local Yirrkala Aboriginal Church. This router means that people can connect via WIFI to view and download Gospel resources. This latest edition has the ability for people to view the words in Yolngu Matha for some of the songs that are sung on Sundays. Setup on a TP Link WR842ND the router is available 24/7 running off mains electricity at a fixed location, providing access to these resources at a known location for locals.
Yirrkala Church – north Australia
Remember these isolated communities dont have Christian bookshops, they dont have internet access – so by providing access to resources like these that we can take for granted in Australia is a fantastic support by MAF.
Donations to support the provision of these Bible resources for MAF are collected here – https://donate.maf.org.au/
by Campbell Smythe | Mar 24, 2015 | BibleBox
John Edmiston at Cybermissions is leading a Mobile Ministry online course.
Next course commences Tuesday, June 9th 2015
The course is delivered using Moodle and is self paced. However to fully maximise your experience Id suggest engaging with the topics within the timeframe so you can participate in online discussions around the topics and connect with others doing the course. (more…)
by Campbell Smythe | Nov 29, 2014 | BibleBox
Thanks to some work by BibleBoxer Peter Brassington, the BibleBox is now available to run on jailbroken Android devices.
The BibleBox is based on open licensed software from Piratebox and Librarybox projects and Peter has based the Android version of BibleBox from Piratebox Android.
Now a user with a jailbroken Android device can install Android BibleBox and share files from their device in the same way they would share them from a portable wifi router. Their device acts as a hotspot sharing BibleBox files on the device or SD card.
Peter has set out easy to follow instructions on Box.com here: https://app.box.com/s/dcm7stkfsekfol48a9oo
Android BibleBox Logos
The following Android BibleBox logos below are ones I created which could be used to customise this BibleBox version but you can easily create your own to suit your ministry. Right-click to Save them to your computer then follow Peter’s instructions to place them in the correct folder.
right click – save as
PirateBox for Android by fun2code is Open Source. fun2code also developed PAW server which we used for mobile filesharing on Android phones before Estante came out from MAF-LT.
Source code is available at GitHub: https://github.com/joschi70/AndroidPirateBox
by Campbell Smythe | Apr 26, 2014 | BibleBox
I had a comment on using a BibleBox in a restricted access country. The person was pleased to see that the BibleBox label was simply a sticker so it could be removed if necessary.
It prompted me to write a short “How to” on what you can do to totally remove “Bible” from the device if you needed to.
External – simply remove the sticker
Internal – you’ll need to change the wifi SSID, Web HTML text, logo image and Hostname.
You’ll also need to modify the Chatbox text (how to do that is here…)
Remember the BibleBox will still make files available on wifi if it is in a small bag or pouch. Many times when I am out I have the BibleBox turned on and in a pocket of my laptop bag.
Another option is to go Ninja style and put your BibleBox in a small camera or hard drive case such as the one shown below.
Changing the BibleBox webpage Logo
To change the logo seen on the BibleBox webpages, create a new .PNG image 280 x 60 pixels in size called logo_biblebox-320×69.png. Once you’ve created it save it onto your BibleBox USB drive in the folder – Content>img replacing the original logo. If you want to keep a backup of the original BibleBox logo better do that before overwriting with your new one.
Changing the HTML BibleBox webpage text
To remove any BibleBox references in the webpages, simply open each page in a text or html editor and make the necessary changes.
Change the name of the BibleBox SSID
The default name for the BibleBox wifi network is “BibleBox files”. To change this to something else, on the USB open the Config folder and the file – ssid.txt. Modify the content of this file to your desired SSID name, insert the USB back in the BibleBox device and restart.
Changing the Hostname from BibleBox.lan to something else
To change the Hostname – the address seen in the URL or address bar on your wifi device – modify the content of the text file called hostname.txt and system_hostname.txt. If you open these files (found on the USB in the Config folder) you will see BibleBox.lan, simply change this and save the text files. Once you restart the BibleBox your changes will be actioned.
Changing the Chatbox text from BibleBox to something else
Using Terminal (Mac) or PuTTY (PC) app:
- connect your BibleBox to your computer
- make sure your computer has IP address 192.168.1.2
- use Terminal or PuTTY ssh into BibleBox ssh root@192.168.1.1 plus your BibleBox password
- change the directory to the location of the chatbox file you want to modify, type: cd /opt/piratebox/conf
- to modify the initial chat box content txt file type –
vi chat_init.txt
- press i to go into edit mode
- make your edit
- press Esc to go back to command mode
- type :w to save your edit, press enter/return key
- type :q, then press enter/return to quit editing
- Restart the BibleBox to apply the changes
by Campbell Smythe | Apr 25, 2014 | BibleBox
This slideshare presentation introduces the BibleBox. The BibleBox is a wifi router which shares files from an attached USB drive.
Useful in a variety of ministry contexts it makes it easy to share digital files to users of wifi enabled phones, tablets, computers and other devices.
