Shouldn't my my home computer recognize my iphone as an itunes player?
 

Or is that just wishful thinking?

if apple had something other than contempt for it's users then maybe.

Now that's funny!!

That's one thing I'll never understand. They only see their user base as a cash cow yet they have hands down the best customer service I've seen.

As for the topic at hand, unless you're seriously invested in the iUniverse it would be much better to use a better media player (foobar, winamp, etc) and a non-Apple mp3 player.

Also , VLC media player.

Sometimes it irks me my router loses its connection, but the century old technique of unplugging it when it works wrong and then plugging it back in hasn't failed me.

True story.

Indeed wishful thinking. :D

You want to play the music on the iPod through the computer, or control the computer using the iPod and play the music on the computer's hard drive? You need to describe the rest of the setup- are you playing this through a stereo system? Are you using an AppleTV or Airport Express? Those can be used to play iTunes through the stereo and with the Remote app or Home Sharing, you can play the computer's music through an AppleTV.

Treating people well through their CS is a good way to retain customers. I use AppleCare fairly often and I don't think I have had a bad experience. I wish I could say the same about some of the other companies.

AppleTV works great for this- I was working with three of them in one house with iPad, iPhone and iMac as sources for iTunes music and the iMac's Home Sharing set up to the media cound be played on the AppleTVs. If more than one AppleTV is in the network, each can stream from the same computer simultaneously, too.

Your home computer should recognize the iPhones superiority and bow before it.