iphonemacbook protetheringwifi
Is it possible to do something similar to iPhone hotspot, but instead of using the iPhone's cellular data connection, it uses it's Wi-Fi connection instead. Thus, allowing a MacBook Air to access the hotspot in order to use the internet through the iPhone's Wi-Fi connection instead of its cellular connection.
I would like to try this because my MacBook Air's Wi-Fi connection is flaky, but when connecting it to my iPhone's hotspot it seems to be fine.
I use my MacBook Pro to share internet to my iPhone and my friends' iPod Touch.
Make sure that you're using WPA2 to secure your network, not WEP- I have had issues connecting my iPhone to WEP networks, and they're not only less secure but the password is more annoying to type anyway.
Other than that, your IP schemes are also not compatible. You need to set the devices to have the same IP scheme; if your WiFi is set to a 192.168.1.1 address, your iPhone needs to be 192.168.1.2-255. Setting both to DHCP would help a lot here.
For my setup, I just left everything as DHCP and don't have any issues.
If you plug any cellular enabled iOS device with Personal Hotspot turned on to a Mac via USB, the Mac will automatically open a network connection using the Personal Hotspot.
So yes, your Macbook Air will be the 1 connection you see.
The second part of your question is a little trickier and the answer is both complex and confusing but I will try to explain as best I can.
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Based on older knowledge with other multiple interface *nix systems is that it will be a complete toss up as to which connection your Mac will use since both active connections could possible provide the same route to the destination for any network query.
I have even seen, on both Windows and Unix networks, traffic coming in on one network connection and going out on another, which rarely works well.
To get round this, in the Network panel you could disable the "iPad USB" in your default location, but then set up a new location where your "iPad USB" is not disabled.
Finally, the order of your devices should mean that if your wifi is above the iPad USB device in your list when both are enabled, it will get priority over the hotspot, but there are still caveats and this could still use cellular data, but of a lesser amount.
Best Answer
As per http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4517, you cannot use your Wi-Fi connection on your iPhone while using Wi-Fi for Personal Hotspot.
However, if you connect your computer to the iPhone using a USB cable or Bluetooth, it seems to be possible to utilise the Wi-Fi via the phone. In this case the blue statusbar informs the usage of Personal Hotspot connections and Wi-Fi icon is still visible on the iPhone.