Hosting a website on a PinePhone, etc.

[TRS-80]

2. I've tried connecting a computer to the Internet via the phone's Wifi (hotspot), but have never been able to keep it going - it always seems to cut off after some time. Obviously, a web server must have a persistent connection.

Remember I said I don't like Verizon?  This is another one of many reasons why...  In addition to pioneering artificial scarcity marketing/pricing (charging per GB, lol) they also think you should pay extra if you dare try and share your data connection with any other device.  I am not sure whether you are paying for (or your plan supposed to include) "Wi-Fi hotspot" or not, but I would at least check that first.  BTW, there are ways around that, too, in either case...

3. Since I only make a few phone calls, my 1st choice was to have a laptop or tablet with a cellular modem that is capable of voice calls (not VoIP, because I can't assume that the people I'm calling, like a doctor's office, are on a computer). However, to my knowledge, no such device exists - I think iPads, Samsung laptops, etc. with LTE capability are only for WiFi, right?

Well, at risk of confusing the issue, technically almost all businesses are on VOIP already, and also almost all cellular networks are too, at this point.  The only reason we still have to use their networks and "phone numbers" are due to Normie familiarity and legacy lock in business models.  But as I said, I digress...

Your thoughts are on the right track, however in practice I think it will probably be easier to find hardware and software to support "cell phone plan and share hotspot with other devices" sort of workflow, rather than the other way around.  As you apparently found out.  I mean, that's what I do (and I imagine many others do, too).

4. So when I discovered the PinePhone (actually, heard about the Librem5 1st, but PinePhone is so much cheaper, and almost as capable), it seemed like a great solution. I'm hoping that it's compatible with Verizon as far as the bands they use, GSM vs. CDMA, etc.

Any "smart" phone (Android, etc.) would probably work for this "cell phone plan and share hotspot" workflow, but PinePhone have a lot of other advantages (IMO) like real GNU/Linux and other things.  OTOH, it is still "early days" for PinePhone...

TRS-80, you bring up the issue of static vs. dynamic IP - are you sure that a carrier like Verizon will always assign different addresses, and if so, is there a workaround when I set up the DNS records, etc.?

It's not about static vs dynamic, it's about "carrier grade NAT" as another poster have now also pointed out in the meantime. This is not like your internet service at home, where you have an IP address which is reachable from the rest of the Internet. Inside your mobile carrier's network, you only have some internal IP address. Nothing that can be reached from the outside coming in. Your data connection is essentially outbound only. Look in your phone settings and you might be able to see this.

And as far as the Sim card goes, isn't that just used by the carrier for billing purposes? Because I think you're right about the IMEI and also maybe something else (IMSI?), but the question is, how do you change them?

In Verizon's case, they are also using it to lock down their network, to try and force you to either buy a device from them, or at least introduce some hurdles to anyone trying to bring their own device.  Remember what I said about Verizon. 

By the way, when you were talking about SBC's, were you thinking of the Raspberry Pi? Because that looks like a fantastic machine, but again, I don't believe it has a cell modem.

Well, the point I apparently failed to make was that there are a ton of other devices available than "Raspberry Pi" and in fact I am personally sick of RPi seemingly becoming synonymous with SBC in the minds of so many people.  RPi are only one of hundreds of options.  And many of those other options are less locked down, have more interesting (better) hardware, etc...

And as for "cell modem" I still don't think you have got your head around why that's not going to work, and therefore, why that is ultimately an irrelevant criteria. 

Let's try to strike at the heart of this "hosting a web site" issue, shall we?

Because I don't recall reading what exactly you had in mind when you said "hosting a web site" because that could mean quite a lot of different things.  Are you talking about something personal, private, and available only on your local network to your other personal devices?  Or a public facing website?  Static or dynamic?  Etc...  Or do you just want to tinker and learn?  Depending on answers to these questions, we could probably get you going in some better direction.

I personally eschew all proprietary social media and "cloud" providers, instead preferring to self host my own (and have been doing so for years).  But I am not sure this is what you are really after or not (we need answers to above questions about "what is your real end goal" first).

Zebulon Walton, I was originally thinking Apache, but people say that's overdoing it, and many recommend NGINX.  When I finally get a hold of a machine, I'll definitely try the IBM server also.

Thanks for your help, guys.

Nginx (pronounced "Engine X") would be the modern, maintained, lightweight choice of many people nowadays.  There are some others, too, but Nginx will certainly be a name you hear thrown around a lot.