Prepper Disk - Off grid mega compendium of preloaded prepper materials

[majorhavoc]

Prepper Disk - $200.

It's completely self-contained and creates its own hotspot so up to 20 devices can connect and access content at the same time. Can also be purchased with an Anker USB power bank and Farraday bag.

What thinks the collective?  I know in theory this could be done less expensively as a DIY project.  But I've known that for a while, and still haven't devoted the time, energy and funds to learn exactly how to do it.  Much less followed through and actually done it.  So I'm thinking a turnkey solution like this might be worth the premium over a DIY alternative.  

I learned about it from Urban Prepper's overview/initial review.  This seems like a very impressive product.  Tell me what I'm missing here. 

[Z.O.R.G.]

Depends on the content, I guess.  You can always save online content to a thumb drive and access it that way.  You can also get a bigger hard drive than offered that plugs directly into a router, and it allows you to share your files directly from it for about the same cost and little work.

It also depends on how much sharing you want to do as well.  in a true $HTF situation where I'm bugging in and hunkering down, I'm turning everything Wi-Fi off.  Due to its limited range, it's pretty easy to detect if one is nearby and zero in on the source.  If everyone has power, it's no big deal. If only a few do, it literally broadcasts that you're one that has it.

[wolf_from_wv]

Depends on the content, I guess.  You can always save online content to a thumb drive and access it that way.  You can also get a bigger hard drive than offered that plugs directly into a router, and it allows you to share your files directly from it for about the same cost and little work.

It also depends on how much sharing you want to do as well.  in a true $HTF situation where I'm bugging in and hunkering down, I'm turning everything Wi-Fi off.  Due to its limited range, it's pretty easy to detect if one is nearby and zero in on the source.  If everyone has power, it's no big deal. If only a few do, it literally broadcasts that you're one that has it.

Then, you can make a low dropout power supply, and run the router from an automotive battery with solar cell.  That would be better if everyone has power or at a gathering or trading post or maybe if you were running the post-apocalyptic library and other people had electronics.

[Moab]

Seems to me I just saw an article for a freeware server type software that allowed you to share files with everyone in your household. It's a big topic these days as folks are getting tired of paying for the cloud and lack of complete security. I've seen several solutions or alternatives to cloud backups recently. Couldn't you easily do this with the files shared from your laptop or phone? I have not set anything up like this. But certainly considered it. 

I have 11gb of survival/prepping files. On my phone, laptop, external laptop and phone hard drives as well as in Google Drive. It seems like sharing from your phone or laptop locally wouldn't be that hard. I agree doing it wirelessly might not be the best method in a PAW or something. 

I have a USB c hardrive for my phone that plugs right in. It's 512gb and cost $50(?). And similar but larger 2tb for my laptop. Passing that around seems alot cheaper and more secure. 

Sometimes I think guys think a PAW is going to be a Renfaire. And your going to be able to charge passersby a fee for accessing their information cache wirelessly. Lol. This seems like an expensive solution in search of a problem that has no concerns about security. But I'm not a tech professional. 

[wolf_from_wv]

Sometimes I think guys think a PAW is going to be a Renfaire. And your going to be able to charge passersby a fee for accessing their information cache wirelessly. Lol. This seems like an expensive solution in search of a problem that has no concerns about security. But I'm not a tech professional.

Then, you have to have a backup of all the stuff on the drive.  Otherwise, someone can just delete or corrupt everything.

[eugenenine]

Seems to me I just saw an article for a freeware server type software that allowed you to share files with everyone in your household. It's a big topic these days as folks are getting tired of paying for the cloud and lack of complete security. I've seen several solutions or alternatives to cloud backups recently. Couldn't you easily do this with the files shared from your laptop or phone? I have not set anything up like this. But certainly considered it.

Nextcloud is a popular one. I've been running it for years, and owncloud before the fork

[Moab]

Sometimes I think guys think a PAW is going to be a Renfaire. And your going to be able to charge passersby a fee for accessing their information cache wirelessly. Lol. This seems like an expensive solution in search of a problem that has no concerns about security. But I'm not a tech professional.

Then, you have to have a backup of all the stuff on the drive.  Otherwise, someone can just delete or corrupt everything.

Yes. Agreed. I don't think I'd be in the information business to begin with. But wireless is full with problems. You'd have to figure out some form of security. Most likely not wireless at all. Maybe they supply the thumb drive. You do the transfer for them. And hand the thumb drive back. Or phone or laptop or whatever. I wouldn't hand my hard drive to anyone. But I wouldn't want to leave any wireless system open for anyone either. 

Like I said, I think this is a solution in need of a problem. 

[eugenenine]

Setup a separate guest (wifi) network