iPhone as proxy for data upload

Question

I want to create an iPhone application that can call web services on a computer, and then upload those files over the iPhone 3g connection. Is there an elegant way to do this?

I tried connecting the phone to local Wifi, but connecting to Wifi disables 3g, even though the Wifi is local network only.

I assume the same problem would arise if I could network the phone with the computer via bluetooth.

Any other ideas? The purpose is to go up to a special demo PC we created, pull some data off, then upload to the Internet, all within proximity of the machine. Unfortunately, it appears that I can't use one connection for pulling data, and another for pushing.

Answer 1

Your assumption is correct. When connecting to both 3G and Wifi, the Wifi connection will be used. Sounds like your local network has no route to the Internet. Perhaps that could be fixed.

Apple does not prefer its iPhones to be used as routers.

If you're working on something that will not be distributed through the App Store, you may have some success looking at "tethering" applications and their source code, which can be found by some clever Googling.