I live in Tampa. Hurricane season runs June through November. Every year, some part of Florida loses power and internet for days or weeks. And every year, I think about what I’d actually need if the internet disappeared.

Not in a prepper bunker kind of way. Just… practically. If I can’t Google something, can’t ask Claude, can’t look up a recipe or a first aid procedure or a map, what do I do?

So I’m turning a portable SSD into a self-contained knowledge server that runs without internet. One drive. One command. Everything I need.

The Hardware

Samsung T7 Shield, 2TB. It’s rugged (IP65 rated for dust and water), bus-powered (no wall plug needed, just USB), and fast enough for Docker containers. Currently it’s plugged into my homelab server, but the whole point is that I can unplug it and take it anywhere.

Any computer with Docker installed can become the server. My Mac. A friend’s laptop. That old ThinkPad in the closet. Plug in the T7, run one command, open a browser.

What Lives on the Drive

I organized it into categories that make sense when you’re thinking about extended offline scenarios:

AI Chat (Ollama + Open WebUI): Six language models including uncensored ones. Ask anything, get answers, no internet needed. This is the big one. Having an AI you can query offline is… kind of a superpower.

Offline Wikipedia (Kiwix): The entire top tier of English Wikipedia in a single 7.7GB file. Served through a Docker container that looks and feels like Wikipedia in your browser. Search works. Images work. Links work. Just no internet.

Survival References: US Army Survival Manual, FEMA emergency guides, first aid protocols, water purification guides. PDFs organized and ready to open.

Recipes (Mealie): An offline recipe manager with my saved recipes pre-loaded. Because eating well during a power outage is a morale thing, and I’m not about to eat canned beans for a week if I don’t have to.

Books (Calibre-Web): An ebook library served through a browser. Fiction, reference, technical documentation. Reading material for when there’s nothing else to do.

Maps (Project NOMAD + OpenStreetMap): Offline maps of Florida and the Southeast US. Because your phone’s map app is useless without cell service.

Radio References: GMRS channel plans, local repeater directories, emergency communications procedures. I have a Baofeng radio and a GMRS license. The frequency charts need to be accessible without Googling them.

Code Repos: Cloned copies of my active projects. Because if I have power and a laptop but no internet, I might as well keep coding.

One Command to Rule Them All

Everything starts with a single docker compose file:

cd /mnt/t7-intel
docker compose -f docker-compose.portable.yml up -d

That spins up:

  • AI Chat at localhost:3080
  • Wikipedia at localhost:8888
  • Recipes at localhost:9925
  • Books at localhost:8083

All served from the T7. All working without internet. All accessible from any browser on the same machine.

The Quick-Start Card

I’m going to print a small card and tape it to the T7 case:

T7 OFFLINE HUB - QUICK START
1. Plug into any computer with Docker
2. Open terminal
3. cd /Volumes/T7-INTEL (Mac) or /mnt/t7-intel (Linux)
4. docker compose -f docker-compose.portable.yml up -d
5. Open browser:
   AI: localhost:3080
   Wiki: localhost:8888
   Recipes: localhost:9925
   Books: localhost:8083

Because if I’m stressed and the power’s been out for two days, I don’t want to remember Docker commands. I want a card that tells me exactly what to do.

Why Not Just Download Stuff to Your Phone?

Phones die. Batteries last maybe a day, two if you’re careful. A laptop with a charged battery plus a portable SSD gives you maybe 8-10 hours of actual use. And if you have a generator or solar panel, it’s indefinite.

But the bigger reason: phones are consumption devices. A laptop with a knowledge server is a tool. You can search, cross-reference, plan, communicate, and solve problems. That’s different from scrolling through downloaded PDFs.

The Auto-Sync

When the T7 is plugged into my homelab at home, a systemd service automatically starts the AI stack, syncs the latest git repos, and checks for model updates. Haven (my homelab) keeps everything current while it has internet. The T7 just absorbs the latest data like a sponge.

When I unplug it, I have the most recent snapshot of everything. Models, Wikipedia, recipes, repos, references. Frozen in time but fully functional.

What’s Still Missing

I still need to add:

  • More survival PDFs (the good ones from Hesperian)
  • NOAA nautical charts for Tampa Bay
  • Curated entertainment (movies, music, audiobooks for morale)
  • A portable pentesting toolkit (Kali ISO for security work)
  • Retro games and emulators (because sanity matters)

The drive is 2TB. I’m using maybe 30GB right now. There’s room for everything.

The Interview Answer

Someone asked me once what I’d showcase in a DevSecOps interview. I said “I run a local LLM stack on a portable SSD with offline Wikipedia, a recipe manager, and a vector database for semantic search over my own documents. No cloud dependencies. One docker compose command.”

That answer landed.

For Tampa People

If you’re in the Tampa Bay area and hurricane season makes you nervous… this project is genuinely useful. You don’t need a homelab. You don’t need to be a developer. You need a laptop, Docker Desktop installed, and a decent external SSD.

Download the Kiwix Wikipedia file (7.7GB, free). Pull one Ollama model (5GB, free). Set up the docker compose file (I’ll share mine). And you’ve got offline AI and offline Wikipedia on a drive that fits in your pocket.

That’s worth more than a case of bottled water. Though… get the water too.

I’m documenting the full T7 Offline Hub build including the docker compose file and download links. Follow the blog for the complete guide when it’s ready.