Tethering method, computing devices, system and software

A method of facilitating tethering of a client computing device to a plurality of mobile devices, the method comprising:

• at an internet proxy server having a data connection with each of a plurality of mobile devices, receiving internet-originated data destined for a client application executing either at the client computing device that is tethered to the plurality of mobile devices or at a separate computing device in data communication with the client computing device;
• at the internet proxy server, automatically apportioning the internet-originated data among the plurality of data connections for transmission to the plurality of browser applications for relaying to the client computing device.

A method of facilitating tethering of a client computing device to a mobile device, the method comprising:

• at a client computing device having a data connection with a browser application executing in a mobile browser of a mobile device, the browser application having opened a data connection for internet connectivity through a cellular data network, transmitting internet-destined data from a client application, the client application executing either at the client computing device or at a separate computing device in data communication with the client computing device, to the browser application via the data connection;
• at the client computing device, receiving internet-originated data destined for the client application from the browser application executing in the mobile browser of the mobile device via the data connection.

A method of facilitating tethering of a client computing device to a plurality of mobile devices, the method comprising:

• at a client computing device having a data connection with each of a plurality of mobile devices each having internet connectivity through a cellular data network, automatically apportioning internet-destined data from a client application, the client application executing either at the client computing device or at a separate computing device in data communication with the client computing device, among the plurality of data connections for transmission to the plurality of mobiles devices;
• at the client computing device, receiving internet-originated data destined for the client application from the plurality of data connections with the respective plurality of mobile devices.

A method of facilitating tethering of a client computing device to a mobile device over an IEEE 802.11 protocol compliant wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

• at a mobile device having a data connection with a client computing device over an IEEE 802.11 protocol compliant WLAN, the data connection being referred to as a Wi-Fi™ data connection, the Wi-Fi™ data connection having an associated gateway identifier identifying a gateway for accessing the internet via the Wi-Fi™ data connection, the mobile device further having a cellular data network data connection to the internet,
• modifying or deleting the gateway identifier identifying the gateway for accessing the internet via the Wi-Fi™ data connection so as to cause the mobile device to use the cellular data network data connection rather than the Wi-Fi™ data connection for relaying internet-destined data from the client computing device.

A method of facilitating tethering of a client computing device to a mobile device over an IEEE 802.11 protocol compliant wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

• at a mobile device having a data connection with a client computing device over an IEEE 802.11 protocol compliant WLAN, the data connection being referred to as a Wi-Fi™ data connection, the mobile device further having a cellular data network data connection to the internet,
• upon determining that a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of an internet-destined IP packet received from the client computing device falls within range of IP destination addresses for which transmission to the internet over the Wi-Fi™ data connection is precluded, using the cellular data network data connection to transmit the internet-destined IP packet towards the internet.