I use <a href=code.kryo.se/iodine>iodine</a> as a wrapper for this, and I use it very frequently (as I fly internationally at least once every few weeks). It usually sits as a service on my home server. So far the only airport where I didn't make it to work was in Miami (where I connected though a socks tunnel though my iphone 3g anyways).

dns tunelling is slow, but handy for console/screen situations. I usually use it to download the newspaper before getting into the plane (a bunch of wgets) and refresh the rss feeds on newsbeuter.