I have been trying to figure this out for a while to connect my laptop to my phones 3G connection.  The tethered solutions seemed overly complicated requiring the installation of multiple applications, Kelvin had managed to get it working on his N95 but it was a pretty painful process.

Then I remembered hearing about turning your phone into a wireless hotspot on a podcast and sure enough this free app from Joiku does just that.

Start the application and your phone becomes a wireless router which you can connect any of your devices to.  Joiku is kind enough to display the usage so that I can use Vodafone NZs 10MB for $1 data connection without running up any massive data bills.  Unfortunately the free version is not secure so anyone can connect but if you are only using it for brief periods then I can’t see a problem, although the premium version does offer more security.

You do need a 3G phone with wifi and no doubt it will drain the batteries in my N95 in no time but if you are stuck in a hotel with no internet a powerpoint will not be too far away.  I look forward to trying this out at the TRCC conference in Wellington in October.