XML-RPC + SimpleHTTPServer question

[jbrewer]

I'm currently implementing an XML-RPC service in Python where binary
data is sent to the server via URLs.  However, some clients that need
to access the server may not have access to a web server, and I need to
find a solution.  I came up with the idea of embedding a simple HTTP
server in the XML-RPC clients so that files can be sent in the
following way:

1.  Start an HTTP server on the client using e.g SImpleHTTPServer on a
user allowed port
2.  Call XML-RPC server with the URL to the file on the client to
upload
3.  Get XML-RPC server response, then shut down HTTP server on client

Does this sound reasonable?  I know that XML-RPC can send binary data,
but I presume that the URL method would be faster because the XML
parser could skip reading the binary file (is it base64 encoded as a
string like in SOAP?).

Anyway, I'm unsure of how to implement this in Python.  In particular,
how do I shut down a web server once I've started it with
server_forever()?  Should I run the server in a separate thread or run
it asynchronously?  Since I'm only uploading one file I don't really
need to handle multiple clients; I just need to be able to shut the
server down once remote call has finished.

Any help would be appreciated since I'm new to network programming.

Jeremy