Media server without internet?

Question

On my phone I have the Foobar2000 app which allows me to play music through media servers.

On my Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ I connected a USB stick and set up MiniDLNA.

This works fine but I figured it requires an active internet connection on the Raspberry Pi and my phone connected to the same network.

Is it possible to make MiniDLNA work without internet or are there any similar options?

Answer 1

requires an active internet connection on the pi and my phone connected to the same network

MiniDNLA does not require the former if by "internet connection" you mean something with access to the WWW ("internet" can be taken more broadly to refer to any IP based network, which would include two computers with an ethernet cable etc). But the latter -- a network connection with the phone -- is sort of a logical necessity (if Foobar2000 has a feature to get around this, which is pretty unlikely, then that would require the phone and the Pi connected to the internet proper).

So for example: You should be able to do this by running a hotspot on the phone and connecting the Pi to that, while configuring the hotspot to prevent any connection beyond the phone.¹ You could also do it on a WLAN with no uplink (ie., a local wifi network not connected to the internet proper).

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1. If your phone is not connected to the internet (eg. if you have no data plan or often leave data off), the hotspot will still work and you will still be able connect to the Pi with it. You can do it the other way around too -- set up a hotspot on the pi and have the phone connect to that -- but it is much easier on the phone side and if you do sometimes connect the Pi to the net via wifi you probably would not be able to do that with the hotspot running, whereas a phone can (whether the hotspot and the net uplink can be both be done with wifi simultaneously depends on the phone).