Hosting a web application on an ad-hoc network in linux

Question

This is my first question on SO. Basically, I am attempting to create a sort of offline neighborhood forum. I have setup NodeBB to host a forum locally, but the problem is allowing users to connect. Eventually I plan to use a high-strength wireless router to broadcast an open network, and from there redirect all traffic to the local page. In the mean time, I was wondering if it would be possible to implement this with by means of an ad-hoc network. Broadcasting an ad-hoc network seems easy enough, but how might I redirect the traffic to the port running NodeBB? Any help or comments on the overall idea would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

By default, NodeBB listens on all network interfaces (0.0.0.0), so if you set up an ad-hoc network, anybody connected to your machine will be able to access it via MACHINE_IP:4567.

If you have your machine behind a NAT/Router, you'll have to forward port 4567 to your machine. Alternatively, you could translate requests from external port 80 to port 4567, though that is untested for NodeBB specifically.