How to do an iPhone to Mac sync of Life Balance in your favorite coffee house
So you're in the local coffeehouse, trying to sync Life Balance on your iPhone to your laptop. You've checked that both are on the coffeehouse WiFi network. You've gone through the little song-and-dance in your web browser to accept the coffeehouse WiFi terms and conditions so you can surf the internet. Your web browser works, email works, but Life Balance won't sync. It works at home, so why isn't it working in the coffeehouse?
It turns out that many public WiFi access points intentionally prevent computers on their WiFi network from talking to each other. This is a good idea for many reasons: It protects your privacy. It prevents the spread of computer viruses. But when it comes to syncing your iPhone to your laptop, it's distinctly annoying.
It turns out that there's an easy solution — one that works not just in the coffeehouse or hotel, but even in places with no WiFi at all. You just tell your laptop to create it's own WiFi network, and connect your iPhone to that. You won't be able to surf the internet or check your email, but you
I'll describe how to do this on a MacBook because that's what I'm used to, but I'm sure there's a similar way to do this on a Windows laptop. (If you know what it is, please leave instructions for your fellow users in the comments.)
The first step is to go to the WiFi menu on your Mac and choose the "Create Network..." option.
This will bring up a window like this:
You should give your network a password so that other people in the coffee house don't connect to your laptop by accident. Be sure to follow the instructions in the window about how long your password should be.
Once you have created the network on your laptop, go to the Settings app on your iPhone, tap on WiFi, and then tap on the name of the network you just created. It will prompt you for the same password you just created on your Mac.
Once you're connected to your Mac's WiFi network, just start up Life Balance on your iPhone and sync as usual. The name of your Mac should show up on the Sync screen automatically.
When you're done with the sync, just set your Mac and your iPhone back to the coffeehouse WiFi network so you can send email and surf the internet again.
Comments
Win XP Peer-to-Peer setup
http://www.friendlybits.com/en/inf_tec_en/painless_wireless_en/convertin...
This link contains instructions and plenty of pictures to connect your iPhone using Windows XP.
Under the article "Converting your computer into a HotSPot."
Typical of Windows, it's more than just a couple of steps.
Best Wishes,
deb
Perfect!
I tried these steps and it worked just right. I was able to sync my LB file. Even though the instructions require you to set up ICS, you don't actually need a connection to the internet. It will be interesting to see if I can also use this method to get my phone online when cell coverage is weak.
Thanks,
Dennis
Troubleshoot
If you have trouble connecting your iPhone to your ad-hoc Mac network, then turn off the cellular network connection in your iPhone (go to Airport mode) and just turn on Wi-Fi only and connect to your ad-hoc network.
Your iPhone should then be able to connect (even though it might take a few more seconds to do this).
Then just follow the instructions to sync your iPhone to your Mac.
Hope this helps.