CellGlide User Guide

01Meet CellGlide

CellGlide runs a proxy service on your iPhone. Connected devices send requests to the phone, which forwards them over its cellular connection. The companion Mac client can discover a USB-connected iPhone and use TUN to route the computer’s regular TCP and UDP connections through the proxy.

On first launch, tap Continue on the welcome screen. To view it again, open Settings → About → Product introduction.

02First connection: iPhone + Mac

This setup uses the companion Mac client’s native USB forwarding. You do not need to run iproxy or manually enter a SOCKS port.

1. Prepare the phone. Check that cellular data works and CellGlide has cellular data permission. Connect the iPhone to your Mac with a data-capable USB cable. Unlock the phone and complete “Trust This Computer” when prompted.
2. Start sharing on iPhone. Open CellGlide and tap Start sharing. Allow requested permissions. Keep the app in the foreground while waiting for the running status.
3. Open the Mac client. Install the app in Applications, launch it, and click the CellGlide icon in the menu bar. It does not show a separate Dock icon.
4. Select the phone. A single connected phone can be discovered automatically. With several phones, choose the intended one in USB device. Wait for USB proxy connected.
5. Authorize the helper. Click Authorize background service and allow CellGlide’s background service when macOS asks. If System Settings opens, finish the approval and return to the client.
6. Enable computer routing. Turn on Automatically enable TUN after connecting. Wait for TUN running. “USB proxy connected” only means the local proxy is ready; TUN routes the computer’s traffic.
7. Check real traffic. Open a website on the Mac and watch the phone’s connection count, upload / download speeds and current total. For use with the phone locked, enable VPN background sharing as described below.

To finish, click Disconnect and restore original network on the Mac, then Stop sharing on the phone. You can also exit cleanly using Quit CellGlide at the bottom of the Mac panel.

03Home screen and network information

Use the home screen to start or stop sharing, check the phone’s internet exit, and monitor proxy activity.

Tap Network for traffic statistics, Diagnostics for network checks, and Speed test for cellular speed testing. The gear in the upper-right corner opens Settings.

Exit information appears after a check; it is not continuous location tracking. The internet check verifies the phone’s cellular exit, not the Mac’s USB forwarding or TUN setup.

04Foreground and VPN background sharing

The phone’s VPN configuration runs the background sharing service; it does not require an external VPN server. The computer still needs a client or proxy setup. Enabling the phone VPN does not automatically redirect all ordinary USB hotspot traffic into CellGlide.

Background mode listens on local USB-forwarded ports, not on hotspot / LAN IP addresses. For connections such as 172.20.10.1:9876, use foreground sharing. Background mode requires a client with the corresponding USB forwarding support.

Changing modes interrupts existing connections, which clients must reopen. Another VPN can conflict with background sharing; stop the other VPN and check again. System conditions can also interrupt background operation, so check the phone and client status if a connection drops.

05Traffic statistics and reset

Live speeds and chart

The top of the page shows upload and download speeds. The chart covers the last two minutes: red upload above zero, blue download below zero. Download is drawn below zero to separate the directions; it is not negative traffic. Press and hold the chart to inspect a point.

Cumulative usage and three periods

Cumulative usage is the upload and download stored in local history. It survives stopping sharing and restarting the app. Switch between Session / Day / Month:

• Session: select the current or a previous sharing session. Choose a row in Sharing history; Current / latest returns to the newest session. Load older records at the bottom of the list.
• Day: use the arrows or select a date in the history chart. Back to today returns to the current day.
• Month: use the arrows or select a month in the chart. Back to this month returns to the current month.

One statistics session can continue across foreground / VPN mode changes and a DNS configuration restart. Manually stopping and starting sharing creates a new session. Dates use the device’s current time zone.

Protocol breakdown

The breakdown follows the selected session, day or month. Classification uses handshake and packet features:

Clear all records

1. Scroll to the bottom and tap Clear all records.
2. Read the confirmation. Cancel keeps the records; the destructive confirmation clears them.
3. Cumulative totals, all sessions, daily and monthly history, protocol totals and the live chart are reset. Active sharing briefly stops, then resumes with a new statistics session.

06DNS settings and checks

DNS turns domain names into network addresses. CellGlide DNS handles the phone proxy’s domain resolution and ordinary DNS requests from the current Mac TUN client.

Choose a provider or custom endpoint

1. Turn on Use CellGlide DNS.
2. Choose Cloudflare, Google or Custom DoH under Service. Cloudflare is the default.
3. For custom DoH, enter a full HTTPS endpoint such as https://1.1.1.1/dns-query. Include a path. Credentials, query parameters and URL fragments are not supported.
4. Optionally enable Cache results. The in-memory cache respects DNS lifetimes and is cleared when sharing stops.
5. Tap Save and apply. Editing an option without saving does not change the active configuration.
6. Tap Check current DNS to view resolution results and timing. This check uses the saved configuration.

Applying a change restarts active sharing and briefly interrupts connections. The Mac reconnects after detecting the new phone session. If it remains waiting, click Check again.

Turn off CellGlide DNS

Turn off Use CellGlide DNS and tap Save and apply. The phone proxy delegates domain resolution to the system, and the companion Mac client stops CellGlide DNS interception, using its existing resolver configuration. Use a current Mac client that supports this switch. DNS availability then depends on the current network’s resolvers.

Read query statistics

Queries counts queries received by the current sharing process. Cache hits counts replies from the phone cache. Valid cache entries counts entries that have not expired. Query failures counts failed queries. Mac-side cache hits do not create phone queries, so these are not counts of all app requests.

When enabled, upstream queries use cellular data and do not automatically fall back to Wi-Fi or another provider. An upstream specified by hostname needs an initial system lookup. SOCKS-only clients may still resolve locally; curl’s socks5h option sends destination hostnames to the phone.

07Network diagnostics

Tap Start diagnostics and review each result. Stop diagnostics cancels the run. Leaving the page or moving the app to the background also cancels it.

A green check means passed, a red cross means failed, and a gray minus means skipped. One failed DNS server or site does not prove the entire internet connection is down. HTTPS timing includes lookup, connection, TLS and response; it is not ICMP ping latency.

08Cellular speed test

1. Keep the page in the foreground and tap Start speed test.
2. Wait for latency checks, warmup, and upload / download sampling. Each direction is sampled for about 20 seconds, so the full test takes longer. Reaching the data cap may end sampling early.
3. Review download, upload, HTTPS latency and Data used this test. Tap Stop speed test to end early. Leaving the page or switching to the background cancels the test.

The Cloudflare test measures the phone’s cellular exit directly, not the computer’s speed through the USB proxy. It samples a single connection and may report less than a multi-connection peak test.

Mbps means megabits per second; MB/s means megabytes per second (1 MB/s is about 8 Mbps). HTTPS latency is the median of three request timings, excluding connection establishment; it is not ICMP ping.

09Other iPhone settings

Device connection settings

Phone USB / LAN IP is used to display proxy addresses and generate PAC. Editing it does not change the iPhone’s IP. The default is 172.20.10.1; hotspot-IP clients should use the actual USB network gateway.

Refresh local addresses reads available addresses again; Choose detected address fills the selected address. Foreground mode offers Copy SOCKS5 address. The Mac client’s native USB discovery does not depend on this field.

Runtime and background options

Other clients and About

Other clients lists the HTTP / HTTPS CONNECT port and PAC URL. Stop sharing when finished. Foreground proxies have no username or password and should only be used by trusted devices. About → Product introduction opens the welcome screen again.

10Mac menu bar client

Click the menu bar icon to open the panel. Closing the panel does not disconnect sharing.

Status: Waiting for phone sharing means no usable service is ready. USB proxy connected means the local proxy is ready. TUN running means routing has started. If Network recovery failed appears, handle the background-service message and retry before reconnecting.

When a disconnect is detected, the client cleans up this session’s TUN and forwarding ports. Reconnecting the phone creates a fresh connection after the handshake and exit check. Detection and cleanup may take a short time.

11Windows, OpenWrt and manual proxies

The current companion automatic client is for Mac. Windows and OpenWrt can connect over an established iPhone USB hotspot network using SOCKS5-capable software or a router proxy plugin. This example uses foreground sharing with the hotspot IP.

1. Enable Personal Hotspot on iPhone and connect it to the computer or router over USB. Check that the receiving device has a working USB network and an assigned address.
2. Find the USB network gateway, usually 172.20.10.1. Replace all example phone addresses if yours differs.
3. Turn off VPN background sharing on iPhone, start sharing, and keep CellGlide in the foreground.
4. Select SOCKS5 in the client, enter the phone IP and port 9876, and leave username and password empty. Use remote DNS resolution if available.
5. For more apps or all home devices, configure TUN / transparent routing on the receiving device. Adding a proxy node alone does not route every device.

Verify one request first

On a connected device with curl installed, run:

curl --proxy socks5h://172.20.10.1:9876 --connect-timeout 10 --max-time 30 https://www.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/trace

A text response verifies this request through the phone proxy. The h in socks5h sends the hostname to the proxy. This command does not change the entire computer’s proxy settings. With the native Mac client, replace the proxy URL with Local proxy from its panel.

Windows

Enter the parameters in a SOCKS5-capable application, or use a TUN-capable client for broader routing. A Windows HTTP proxy / PAC setup using port 9877 or the PAC URL only affects apps that follow those settings; it does not automatically route all software or ordinary UDP. Disable the configured routing or proxy when finished.

OpenWrt / OpenClash

Prepare the router’s iPhone USB drivers and network interface first. Add a SOCKS5 node to the plugin. This is a node fragment, not a complete router configuration:

proxies:
  - name: iPhone-CellGlide
    type: socks5
    server: 172.20.10.1
    port: 9876
    udp: true

Select the node, configure LAN, DNS and IPv6 routing, check the plugin’s connection list, and watch the phone’s usage. The router’s own DNS configuration does not automatically follow the phone’s DNS switch; manage it on the router.

Drivers, interfaces, plugins and firewall rules vary. A working node does not prove whole-home routing is configured. Stopping the plugin may return clients to the ordinary USB network. To prevent fallback, configure rules appropriate to the receiving device’s network.

12Frequently asked questions