Looking to run a small family website or DNS server? Why use an expensive and power-hungry Intel-based server when you can make your Apple TV do the work? Read on to find out how to make your Apple TV 2 function as a web server.
The tutorial comes to us from MacMinivault.com, and requires your AppleTV 2 to be jailbroken (you can jailbreak the Apple TV 2 using Seas0npass). They have even set up a basic website showing what their hack is capable of achieving.
Their Apple TV is running iOS 4.2.2, and uses the jailbreak app lighttpd for the web server functionality. They’ll be recording the CPU usage and analytics to show the traffic that the unit is handling.
While this hack is more of a stunt than anything at the moment (the Apple TV 2’s meager 8GB of storage won’t get you very far), it’s nevertheless intriguing. Further, if Apple releases an A5-powered AppleTV in the near future, its capabilities will be even more enhanced. If you’d like to try it out, follow the steps below:
Check out Seas0npass for an easy way to jailbreak the Apple TV
SSH in and change the root password
Use apt-cache and apt-get to find and install lighttpd
Use SFTP to upload a /etc/lighttpd.conf config file for lighttpd
Within /usr/sbin/ run lighttpd-angel -f /etc/lighttpd.conf to start lighttpd
Write a plist file in /Library/LaunchDaemons to launch lighttpd on boot
If you do decide to try this out, let us know how it works out for you!
