iPhone sync on a laptop with corporate firewall - workarounds?

Hi Folks,

I'm a long-standing MLO user, and just trying out LifeBalance as an alternative since I need something that'll run on my iPhone.

I've installed the trial Windows XP version of LB, paid for and installed the iPhone client, and imported my tasks. I'm now trying to sync the two.

HOWEVER - since the iPhone relies on the Windows client acting as a server, I can't connect to it. I have Checkpoint firewall software on my laptop that prevents any incoming connections, and since it's a corporate policy, I can't insert an exception / open a port. The only alternative is to disconnect the VPN, kill the firewall client, then go into Network Properties and directly disassociate the firewall with my Wireless adapter, which restarts the adapter. NOT something I can do every single time.

(This does offer one reason for server-based sync, BTW!)

So... I've tried to workaround this, by installing LB on a non-firewalled PC in my home, install Dropbox on both laptop and PC, and set up my PC to sync with the iPhone.

So - what happens is: I save my LB file on my laptop. This synchronises via dropbox, so that the file on my PC is updated. I then sync my iPhone with the PC, and the iPhone is similarly updated.

HOWEVER - this is still a problem - because I have to quit, and then re-run, LB on the intermediate PC. If I just leave it running, then when I make changes on the laptop, the file is synced in the background, and the file on the PC's disc is different to the one in-memory in the app. This way, they become out of sync.

Likewise - if I sync from the iPhone, the in-memory LB on my PC is up to date, but the on-disc version is wrong, and so is the laptop version. I need to save on the PC, then close and reload on the laptop.

Anyway - all of this is not exactly productive, to say the least! I would be happy to just leave my PC running as an intermediate server, but I actually have to go to it and hit save/reload whenever either the iPhone or laptop files change.

The ideal answer would be to open my laptop firewall to LB's port, but as I say, that isn't an option. So.... has anyone else found any other way of doing this?

I suppose another workaround would be to run the Bonjour service to sync the file on-disc to the iPhone, without actually needing to run LB. However, is this an option?

Cheers!

Damian