Patent ID: 8098598

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system, the method comprising: in a wireless device, connecting to a computer system and exchanging wireless communications with a service system to gain access to a communication network; in the service system, authenticating the wireless device and establishing a wireless communication link between the wireless device and the communication network; in the wireless device, instructing the computer system to enumerate the wireless device as a locally attached mass storage device, receiving from the computer system data and storage instructions to store the data in the locally attached mass storage device, and responsively transferring the data for delivery to the service system over the wireless communication link; in the service system, receiving and storing the data transmitted from the wireless device in a network storage system; in the wireless device, receiving retrieval instructions from the computer system to retrieve the data from the locally attached mass storage device, and responsively transferring a request for the data for delivery to the service system over the wireless communication link; in the service system, receiving the request for the data transmitted from the wireless device, retrieving the data from the network storage system, and transferring the data for delivery to the wireless device over the wireless communication link; and in the wireless device, receiving the data transmitted from the service system and providing the data to the computer system.